Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: Death

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of how many Prevention of Future Death reports his Department has received from coroners relating to deaths in prison in the last three years; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) collation, (b) review and (c) implementation of the recommendations of those reports.

Damian Hinds: Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports are published on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, available at the following link: Reports to Prevent Future Deaths - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary.The low number of PFD reports received in 2020/21 is due to the lower number of inquests held due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a higher number of reports received when restrictions were lifted in 2021/22.All PFD reports arising from inquests into deaths in public sector prisons are handled by a central casework team which works with senior staff at the prison at which the death occurred, and where relevant those responsible for policy within HMPPS and/or MoJ, to draft a response. The response is agreed by the governor and is signed off by the Director General of Operations who responds to the coroner in each case.The response explains the action that has been taken to address the matter of concern identified by the coroner and/or describes measures that are being introduced to provide assurance that such action has been effective and that consistent compliance with policy is being achieved. Depending on the nature of the concern this may include actions such as issuing reminders and/or providing refresher training to staff and/or the introduction of additional management checks with a follow-up process to address any identified non-compliance.PFD reports are an important part of our broader system for learning from deaths, which also includes internal early learning reviews and independent investigations by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and we study all these sources carefully to identify themes to inform improved guidance, regular learning bulletins and the development of our prison safety programme more generally.

Civil Proceedings: Legal Aid Scheme

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether legal professionals will be invited to submit evidence to the civil legal aid review.

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of applications for legal aid made by legal professionals were refused by the Legal Aid Agency in each of the last five years.

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the cost to civil legal aid firms of applications for legal aid that were refused by the Legal Aid Agency in the latest period for which data is available.

Mike Freer: We are carrying out extensive engagement with stakeholders as part of the Review of Civil Legal Aid. As part of our evidence gathering, we will be undertaking a Call for Evidence, and interested parties, including legal professionals, will be invited to submit evidence at this stage. Details on timings will be made available in due course.The Legal Aid Agency’s published statistics contain figures setting out total volumes of applications for civil legal aid received, and the volumes of applications granted for each year since 2006, see table 6.1 for data on civil legal aid application volumes and grants and link to which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1146954/legal-aid-statistics-tables-oct-dec-2022.ods.We do not hold information on the cost to civil legal aid firms of applications for legal aid that were refused by the Legal Aid Agency.

Family Courts: Training

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the suggestion from the expert panel in the report entitled Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases, published in June 2020, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing training on a multi-disciplinary basis across all professions and agencies within the family justice system to ensure a consistent approach; and if he will take steps to (a) resource and (b) coordinate such training.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases: Final Report, published on 6 October 2020, what recent progress his Department has made on implementing mechanisms for communication, coordination and consistency between family courts and (a) criminal courts, (b) the police, (c) multi-agency risk assessment conferences, (d) children’s services, (e) family support and therapeutic services and (f) specialist domestic abuse services.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases: Final Report, published on 6 October 2020, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) cost-effectiveness of and (b) optimal model for the delivery of the provision of specialist support services for both survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse.

Mike Freer: Since the Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases report was published in June 2020, good progress has been made on delivering the commitments taken forward in the Government’s Implementation Plan, with the majority of these completed or well under way.We have designed and are piloting a more investigative – and less adversarial - approach for private law proceedings in Dorset and North Wales, in particular for survivors of domestic abuse. At the heart of this model is closer multiagency working which has led to improved communication, greater consistency in information and multi-disciplinary training. The pilot courts work closely with the specialist domestic abuse sector including Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers to ensure that adequate domestic abuse risk assessments and support is in place. Alongside this, the Judicial College has launched new domestic abuse digital training packages for the judiciary and has rolled out a programme of compulsory domestic abuse training for family and civil judges. Monitoring and evaluation of the pilots is ongoing and will inform any decision on rolling out the process further, we anticipate this will be concluded in early 2024.In April 2023, Family Procedure Rule Committee amended the Family Procedure Rules and Practice Directions to allow Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers to accompany parties in the courtroom.My Department will shortly publish a full update on all Harm Panel commitments.

Family Courts: Expert Evidence

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Department of Health and Social Care on the regulation of experts in family courts.

Mike Freer: Officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care have been engaging on the issue of the regulation of experts in the family courts.The issue of whether experts are appointed in family proceedings is a matter for the independent judiciary in each individual case, following the parameters set down in legislation and procedure rules, in particular, section 13 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and Practice Direction 25B. If the expert’s area is regulated by a UK statutory body, they must confirm possession of a current licence to practice or equivalent. If the area is not regulated, then they must demonstrate appropriate qualifications and/or registration with a relevant professional body.

Ministry of Justice: Equality

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many equality impact assessments published by his Department since April 2021 have led to the (a) amending of a policy, (b) decision against proceeding with a policy and (c) continuing with a policy despite evidence of a discriminatory impact.

Mike Freer: In accordance with section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) ensures that assessment of the equalities impacts of its policy proposals is integrated in the development, implementation and review of its policies. Where potential negative impacts are identified, including the potential for direct or indirect discrimination, we consider mitigating actions and alternative approaches. We do not keep central records of all our equality assessments undertaken since April 2021 but publish our policy consultation equality assessments regularly on the MoJ consultation hub which is publicly available on GOV.UK: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/consultation_finder/(opens in a new tab).

Powers of Attorney

Danny Kruger: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that a certificate provider for a Lasting Power of Attorney application is aware their role is to ensure the donor understands the information relevant to the decision, can retain that information, and use or weigh up that information as part of the process of making the decision.

Mike Freer: The certificate provider is a crucial safeguard during the creation of a lasting power of attorney (LPA). They sign to state that the person making the LPA understands it, is not being pressured into making it and there is no evidence of fraud. A modernised LPA service must provide additional support to certificate providers, so they are confident and mindful of their role, including the part the functional test (understanding, retaining, weighing and communicating information relevant to the decisions made) plays in carrying out that role.My department is therefore considering the best way to achieve this, including potential changes to the certificate that is signed, the forms more generally and supporting guidance. Testing and iterating any changes with stakeholders and users will be critical to ensure we achieve the core aim that the certificate provider understands what they need to do and has confidence taking on the role.

Powers of Attorney

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that a certificate provider for a Lasting Power of Attorney application is aware their role is to ensure the donor (a) understands the information relevant to the decision, (b) can retain that information and (c) can use or weigh up that information as part of the process of making the decision.

Mike Freer: The certificate provider is a crucial safeguard during the creation of a lasting power of attorney (LPA). They sign to state that the person making the LPA understands it, is not being pressured into making it and there is no evidence of fraud. A modernised LPA service must provide additional support to certificate providers, so they are confident and mindful of their role, including the part the functional test (understanding, retaining, weighing and communicating information relevant to the decisions made) plays in carrying out that role.My department is therefore considering the best way to achieve this, including potential changes to the certificate that is signed, the forms more generally and supporting guidance. Testing and iterating any changes with stakeholders and users will be critical to ensure we achieve the core aim that the certificate provider understands what they need to do and has confidence taking on the role.

Powers of Attorney

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that a certificate provider for a Lasting Power of Attorney application is aware of their role to ensure the donor (a) understands the information relevant to the decision, (b) can retain that information and (c) can evaluate that information as part of the process of making the decision.

Mike Freer: The certificate provider is a crucial safeguard during the creation of a lasting power of attorney (LPA). They sign to state that the person making the LPA understands it, is not being pressured into making it and there is no evidence of fraud. A modernised LPA service must provide additional support to certificate providers, so they are confident and mindful of their role, including the part the functional test (understanding, retaining, weighing and communicating information relevant to the decisions made) plays in carrying out that role.My department is therefore considering the best way to achieve this, including potential changes to the certificate that is signed, the forms more generally and supporting guidance. Testing and iterating any changes with stakeholders and users will be critical to ensure we achieve the core aim that the certificate provider understands what they need to do and has confidence taking on the role.

Prisoners: Death

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on legal representation for prisons and probation staff at inquests on deaths in prison in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Damian Hinds: The information requested is not held centrally.

Prosecutions

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Single Justice Procedure notices have been issued in England and Wales in each reporting year since 2018.

Mike Freer: The volume of defendants dealt with via Single Justice Procedure notices is published on a quarterly basis as part of the National Statistics series Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly. The latest published data is available to December 2022 and can be found at the link below: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Criminal Proceedings: Bolton

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the size of the backlog of criminal court cases in Bolton.

Mike Freer: The number of outstanding cases at the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court are routinely published as part of the National Statistics release Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly. The latest published data is available to December 2022 and can be found at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). For Crown Court, figures are published specifically for Bolton. For magistrates’ courts, the Greater Manchester Local Justice Area is the closest match available.The published data for the Crown Court are found here: Crown Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool, and the published data for the magistrates’ court are found here: Magistrates' courts cases received, disposed and outstanding tool.

Ministry of Justice: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2023 to Question 166164 on Government Departments: Staff, how many and what proportion of respondents to the most recent Leesman office survey undertaken by his Department (a) agreed and (b) disagreed with the statements about their main workplace that (i) it enables me to work productively, (ii) it supports me sharing ideas and knowledge amongst colleagues, (iii) it creates an enjoyable environment to work in, (iv) it contributes to a sense of community at work, and (v) it's a place I'm proud to bring visitors to.

Mike Freer: The Government Property Agency (GPA) is committed to delivering great places to work and to ensure we are delivering on this commitment it is critical that civil servants have a voice that shapes their workplaces so that the spaces we deliver can best support them to be effective in delivering and serving the UK public. GPA has engaged with Leesman, a world leader in measuring workplace experience, using their independent, objective and transparent office surveys that allow us to benchmark ourselves globally.GPA is leading the way in analysing and gaining value from the Leesman data to ensure our workplace decisions and conversations are informed and led by insights and data. Leesman is a world leader in measuring workplace and employee experience via an online survey tool.The most recent Leesman office survey was conducted for Legal Aid Agency staff in November 2022. No other MoJ ALBs/agencies were involved in this survey. The number of respondents that answered either agree or disagree to the questions listed is set out in the table below.QuestionNo. Respondent Agree (figures are aggregate by response of Strongly Agree, Agree or Slightly Agree)No. Respondent Disagree (figures are aggregate by response of Strongly Disagree, Disagree or Slightly Disagree)it enables me to work productively10 (47.62%)10 (47.62%)it supports me sharing ideas and knowledge amongst colleagues10 (47.62%)9 (42.86)it creates an enjoyable environment to work in11 (52.38%)8 (38.10%)it contributes to a sense of community at work11 (52.38%)8 (38.10%)it's a place I'm proud to bring visitors to12 (57.14%)2 (9.52%)

Magistrates: Sentencing

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the extended sentencing powers for Magistrates.

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of giving extended sentencing powers for magistrates on a permanent basis.

Mike Freer: The Government has always been clear that we needed flexibility to vary Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Powers, and that is why it took the power to do so last year in the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022.Since extending Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Powers in May 2022, we have been monitoring data to identify the impacts of the policy change, including increases in election and appeal rates.We are currently experiencing downstream pressures in the criminal justice system, as manifested in Operation Safeguard, and it is important that the government ensures a cohesive cross-system response to this growing pressure. Whilst the increase to magistrates’ court sentencing powers is not the only factor behind this pressure, and our data on the impact is still limited, we believe it is safest to temporarily reduce magistrates’ court sentencing powers to 6 months so that the Crown Court retains power over decisions in respect of longer sentences.It is nearly one year on from the implementation of the extended powers, and this pause gives us time to review the measure, taking into account how it is being used and assessing relevant data across the criminal justice system, with a view to reinstating the powers should this be supported by the evidence.This change is no reflection on the magistracy or their use of the extended powers: the Government places immense value on the continuing and outstanding contribution of Magistrates to the justice system.

Home Office

LGBT+ People: Kenya

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing routes for the resettlement of LGBTI people from Kenya in the UK; and whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure the safety of those people.

Robert Jenrick: The UK has a proud history of supporting refugees. Since 2015, we have offered a place to just under half a million individuals seeking safety.Whilst the UK has made a generous resettlement offer, with worldwide displacement now standing at around 100 million people, we are unable to make routes available for every eventuality.The UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need through existing resettlement schemes which include the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme, and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).Referrals for the UKRS, Community Sponsorship, Mandate Resettlement and Pathway 2 of the ACRS are assessed and submitted by UNHCR. These assessments are based on people’s needs and vulnerabilities and the UK does not seek to influence which cases are referred by UNHCR.

EU Nationals: Passports

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the requirement of EU citizens needing a full passport since October 2021 to enter the UK on the inbound tourism industry.

Robert Jenrick: All visitors from outside the EU are expected to hold a passport (and visa where necessary) and those visiting from EU countries are now expected to do the same. We provided almost a year’s notice for this change to allow people to plan ahead and obtain a passport, if they need to, before they travel. Using a passport also means EU nationals making a short visit can also use e-gates where available for a quicker and easier arrival experience.Some EEA identity cards are among the least secure documents seen at borders and are, as a rule, not as secure as corresponding national passports. They dominated detection figures for document abuse at the border.The Honourable member will also be aware that, at the summit in Paris on 10 March 2023 between UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron, the UK committed to ease the travel of school groups to the UK by making changes to documentary requirements for schoolchildren on organised trips from France. Further details will be announced in due course.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Defence on the steps being taken to ensure that members of the Afghan Territorial Force 444 are accepted into the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme.

Robert Jenrick: The eligibility criteria for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme are set out clearly in Appendix ARAP to the Immigration Rules. Anyone who meets those criteria and wishes to be considered can make a free, online ARAP application at any time and from any location.

Asylum: Military Bases

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Oral Statement to the House on 29 March 2023 by the Minister for Immigration, whether asylum seekers being housed at military bases in the UK will be placed in current or former service accommodation rated (a) grade 1, (b) grade 2, (c) grade 3, (d) grade 4 and (e) below grade 4.

Robert Jenrick: I provided an update to Parliament on 29 March about the ongoing work across Government to secure alternative, more appropriate, cost-effective accommodation options around the country.The two discussed military sites in Lincolnshire and Essex will provide basic and functional accommodation for migrants who illegally enter the UK by crossing the Channel, instead of using expensive hotels.The sites will house asylum seekers in former barracks and modular accommodation in an orderly manner with healthcare provision, catering facilities and 24/7 security all on site.

Death Certificates: Ethnic Groups

Dawn Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons the recording of ethnicity on death certificates has not been made mandatory.

Robert Jenrick: Civil Registration is a devolved matter, and the General Register Office can only advise on death registration in England and Wales.The information collected on a death registration is specified in law. As the death registration process itself is not the most effective method to establish ethnicity, there are no plans to change the law.The Minister for Women and Equalities has stated that the government plans to include ethnicity information in the new electronic medical certificate of cause of death. The introduction of this new electronic certificate is being led by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Refugees: Children

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children are in the UK whose parents remain in Afghanistan.

Robert Jenrick: We don't hold centralised data on this.The latest Immigration System Statistics, year ending December 2022, show that since their first arrivals in 2021, the Afghan schemes (ACRS and ARAP) have resettled a total of 21,387 people.

Visas: Applications

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many priority service visas were processed within five days in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many priority service visas were not processed within five days in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.

Robert Jenrick: At present there is no data available for 2022 and 2023. The Home Office expects to reintroduce this data in the next publication scheduled for 25th May 2023. The published statistics which includes data on performance against Service Level Agreement for Standard, Priority and Super priority visas up to the end of Q3 2021 can be found in this link (Data tab VSI_02): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment‌‌_data/file/1058196/UKVI_VC_Transparency_Q4_2021_Published.ods.

Refugees: Rwanda

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what she plans the maximum number of refugees to be from Rwanda who may be resettled in the UK under the Memorandum of Understanding between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership arrangement.

Robert Jenrick: As set out in the Memorandum of Understanding, a small number of the most vulnerable refugees in Rwanda will be resettled in the UK as part of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.The number will be small- likely in the tens, rather than the hundreds.More details on the resettlement of vulnerable refugees will be set out in due

British National (Overseas): Immigration Controls

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of granting British National (Overseas) passport holders access to e-gates at ports of entry.

Robert Jenrick: The government has an ambitious vision for the future border, and is committed to delivering a border experience which will be contactless for the majority of people. As we do so, eligibility to seek leave to enter the UK via an automated e-gate will be regularly reviewed.

Immigration: Hong Kong

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to take steps to help ensure that the Hong Kong diaspora living in the UK are able to protest the Hong Kong Finance Minister's 2023 visit without compromise to their personal security.

Miss Sarah Dines: We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK very seriously. As you would expect, Home Office officials work closely with the FCDO and DLUHC, as well as other government departments, to ensure that the UK is a safe and welcoming place for both those who hold BN(O) status and other Hongkongers.Attempts by foreign Governments to coerce, intimidate, harass or harm their critics overseas, undermining democracy and the rule of law, are unacceptable. Anyone who is concerned for their safety should contact the police.

Asylum: Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Oral Statement of 29 March 2023 by the Minister for Immigration on Illegal Migration Update, Official Report, column 1018, what estimate she has made of the number of asylum seekers that will be housed at each military site in (a) Essex, (b) Lincolnshire, (c) East Sussex and (d) Catterick.

Robert Jenrick: Details on the number of asylum seekers we estimate to be accommodated on each site are available on Asylum accommodation factsheets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Asylum: Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Oral Statement on Illegal Migration Update by the Minister for Immigration on 29 March 2023, Official Report, column 1018, which military sites will be used to house asylum claimants in (a) Essex, (b) Lincolnshire and (c) East Sussex.

Robert Jenrick: We do not comment on individual sites. The Home Office are assessing all suitable options for accommodation.

Offences against Children

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officers her Department plans to employ in the Grooming Gangs Taskforce.

Miss Sarah Dines: The Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce will help improve how the police investigate child sexual exploitation and protect children from abuse.The Home Office has made £2.1million available, through the National Police Chiefs Council, to fund the Taskforce, in FY 23/24.The allocation of resources within the Taskforce is an operational decision, but will include experienced and qualified Review Officers, experienced analysts, and expert Senior Investigating Officers with practical experience of undertaking grooming gang investigations.The Taskforce with provide practical, expert, on the ground support for forces on all forms of child sexual abuse, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs.

Knives: Bournemouth East

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent knife crime in Bournemouth East constituency.

Chris Philp: Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.We are supporting the police every step of the way to tackle knife crime and have given them more powers and resources to go after criminals and take knives and other dangerous weapons off our streets, including through the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers and increased police funding.As of 31 December 2022, Dorset Police has recruited 117 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 166 officers and the force has been allocated 67 additional uplift officers in the final year of the Uplift.On 31 January, the Government confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £313.8 million when compared to 2022/23. Dorset police’s funding will be up to £166m in 2023/24, an increase of up to £6.9m when compared to 2022/23.Nationally, the Government has made over £110m available this financial year (23/24) to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime and are also providing £200m over 10 years for the Youth Endowment Fund, to build an evidence base around what works in preventing youth violence and make this accessible to practitioners.In the Bournemouth area the Youth Endowment Fund is supporting Tavistock Relationships with £1,512,711 across sites in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, offering 10 sessions of Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) for parents experiencing high levels of relationship conflict.In the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 we have introducedo Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVRO); these will be piloted in four police force areas and will give police the power to stop and search adults already convicted of knife or offensive weapons offences.o The new Serious Violence Duty created to ensure a range of specified agencies work together to address serious violence.o New offensive weapons homicide reviews; introduced to improve the national and local understanding of causes, patterns, victims and perpetrators of violence and homicide; improve the response to serious violence on a national and local scale; and ultimately help save lives.Lastly, on 18 April we launched a 7-week consultation on new knife legislation proposals to tackle the use of machetes and other bladed articles in crime. We are consulting on legislative measures to provide the police with more tools to disrupt knife possession and tackle knife crime. The consultation is open to the public.

Organised Crime

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of organised crime gangs operating in (a) Merseyside and Cheshire, (b) North West England and (c) England.

Chris Philp: The Home Office does not hold any publicly available data or information on the number of organised crime gangs.

Family Liaison Officers

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to (a) increase the number of family liaison officers in the police force and (b) provide additional (i) training on communicating with families during policing operations and (ii) resources for family liaison officers.

Chris Philp: Decisions about the allocation and deployment of resources to meet local need, including family liaison officers (FLOs) and their training, are operational matters for Chief Constables. They are best placed to make decisions about how best to meet those needs based on their local knowledge and expertise.The FLO training programme is delivered by police forces. The College of Policing publishes guidance on the deployment of FLOs to inform strategy and direction, which is reflected in the FLO curriculum.In recent years, this Government has committed substantial funding to invest in policing and reduce crime. As of December 2022, police forces have across England and Wales, recruited 16,753 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift, making up 84% of the target of 20,000 additional officers. The Government has confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £313.8 million when compared to 2022/23.

Department of Health and Social Care

Streptococcus: Health Education

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) public awareness and (b) education on Group B Strep.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Members: Correspondence

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the Rt hon. Member for Chipping Barnet of 22 August, 7 October and 22 October 2022 on a request for a meeting to discuss the establishment of a dedicated three-digit mental health emergency hotline.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Smoking

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what modelling his Department has carried out to assess the potential impact of its swap to stop policy on the Government's ability to achieve its smoke free 2030 target.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Drug Resistance

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact on (a) antimicrobial resistance and (b) the effectiveness of antibiotics used to treat human illnesses of a ban on the preventative use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Protective Clothing: China

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of storing personal protective equipment in China in (a) December 2021 and (b) January 2022.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Sexual Offences: Victims

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review and update the Strategic Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Down's Syndrome

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that its Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance is Down's syndrome-specific.

Maria Caulfield: Whilst we recognise that there are overlaps between the services that support people with Down syndrome with those that support people with other genetic conditions and/or a learning disability, the Down Syndrome Act guidance will focus on the unique support needs of people with Down syndrome. We will, however, highlight where best practice in service delivery would also be applicable to those with another genetic condition and/or a learning disability. We continue to work closely with stakeholders on developing the guidance, and there will be a full public consultation once a draft has been produced.

Autism: Hornsey and Wood Green

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the provision of specialist autism support services for children with autism in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of specialist autism support services for children with autism in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.

Maria Caulfield: It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICB) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population including autism services in lines with relevant clinical guidelines.Locally, NHS North Central London ICB is working closely with the local parent/carer representation on how to evaluate the experience of families who require specialist autism support services and gather their qualitative perspective on the strengths and gaps in local services.NHS North Central London ICB, in partnership with the local health Trust, has launched a keyworker programme specifically for children and young people with learning difficulties and who are autistic who require more specialist support to remain in the community and family setting, benefiting all children in Haringey.NHS North Central London ICB has invested additional funding to support families before and after an autism assessment through provision from the local voluntary and community sector.Nationally, we are taking steps to improve autism services including in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services, on 5 April 2023. These documents are intended to help National Health Service and local authorities improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for adults and children who are going through an autism assessment. They also set out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism.In 2022/23 we invested £2.5 million, nationally, to test and embed improved autism diagnostic pathways. In 2023/24 there is national funding of £4.2 million to improve services for autistic children and young people, including to continue to transform and develop autism assessment and diagnosis and pre- and post-diagnostic support to children and young people aged 0 to 25 years old for the continuation of the Autism in Schools programme.

Health Services

Christina Rees: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the accessibility of specialist medical services outside of London.

Helen Whately: The Department does not directly decide the locations from which specialised services are provided on the National Health Service. NHS England is responsible for commissioning services which are prescribed as specialised services in legislation to meet the health needs of people across England. Other medical services are commissioned by one of 42 integrated care boards, or if relevant, by local authorities, for their relevant populations across England.

Neurology: Waiting Lists

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to reduce waiting times for (a) tests and (b) treatment for functional neurological disorder.

Helen Whately: To increase capacity and reduce treatment backlogs in England across specialisms including for functional neurological disorder (FND), the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity.This is supported further by £5.9 billion investment in capital for new beds, equipment and technology and the National Health Service rollout of surgical hubs and up to 160 Community Diagnostic Centres to deliver up to 17 million tests by March 2025.Furthermore, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has guidance in place to support clinicians to quickly diagnose and refer those with FND which is available at the following link:www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng127

Care Homes: Coronavirus

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care homes received transfers from NHS hospitals in April 2020; and how many of those patients were tested for Covid before transfer.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally.

Carers: Government Assistance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains his policy to invest up to £25 million to work with the sector to kick start a change in the services provided to support unpaid carers as set out in the People at the Heart of Care Adult Social Care Reform White Paper, CP 560, published in December 2021.

Helen Whately: The Government will be investing up to £25 million for unpaid carers, in line with the funding commitment in the ‘People at the Heart of Care’ white paper. Further detail will be set out in due course.

Radiotherapy: Finance

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much was spent from the public purse on radiotherapy equipment and software in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22; and whether the Government plans to increase that funding in future years.

Helen Whately: The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million and enabled the replacement or upgrade of circa 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.From April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health Service, and the recent Capital Planning Guidance, which states that integrated care systems (ICSs) will need to develop replacement plans as part of their multi-year capital plans, in partnership with specialised commissioners, Cancer Alliances and Radiotherapy Operational Delivery Networks, based on an assessment of equipment age, capacity and demand, opportunities to improve access and service risk.

Radiotherapy

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Major Conditions and Diseases Strategy will include plans to increase (a) access to radiotherapy cancer treatments, (b) the number of radiotherapy treatment machines and (c) the specialist radiotherapy cancer workforce.

Helen Whately: The Government cannot pre-empt the Major Conditions Strategy prior to its publication.The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer in people of all ages, covering the patient pathway. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.This Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year.  We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens, and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions for the Strategy that will have the most impact.

Radiotherapy: Medical Equipment

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiotherapy LINAC machines will be over the 10 year recommended age by the end of (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally.

Dementia: Congleton

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure (a) dementia is diagnosed in a timely way, (b) services involved in dementia health care communicate with each other effectively and (c) dementia healthcare services are accessible to patients at convenient times and locations, in the Congleton constituency.

Helen Whately: Cheshire East Council and Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Board have been working in close partnership with local providers and Dementia Communities to develop a new Dementia Plan which prioritises the Dementia Well Pathway. The Plan will be published in May 2023.NHS England funding provided in 2021 was used to recruit an Admiral Nurse in each of the two Cheshire East memory services. The aim is to free up existing clinicians to focus on assessment and diagnosis while the Admiral Nurses provide post-diagnostic support to those recently diagnosed or those referred because they are experiencing complexity. An evaluation of this approach will be conducted in October 2023. Early indications suggest high levels of patient and carer satisfaction.

Cancer: Halton

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March to Question 174223 on Cancer: Halton, how many and what proportion of cancer patients in the Halton Local Authority area who received an urgent referral received their first treatment within 62 days of that referral in the latest period for which data is available.

Helen Whately: This information is not collected in the format requested. Data on cancer patients who received an urgent referral and the time in which they received their first treatment is not collected at local authority level.NHS England publish cancer waiting times data at trust level. Provisional data from NHS England for February 2023 shows Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provided first treatment to 27 patients who received an urgent general practitioner referral for suspected cancer within 62 days of that referral. This equates to 57% of all cancer patients who received an urgent referral to Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Hospices: Energy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of energy costs on hospices; and what steps is he taking to support hospices with rising energy costs.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to support hospices with the cost of energy bills.

Helen Whately: No assessment has been made. Following a HM Treasury-led review into the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme will run from April 2023 until March 2024 and continue to provide a discount to eligible non-domestic customers, including hospices. At a national level, NHS England has released £1.5 billion additional funding to integrated care boards (ICBs) to provide support for inflation, with ICBs deciding how best to distribute this funding within their system, including to palliative and end of life care providers such as hospices.

Mental Health Services: Schools

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of (a) schools and (b) pupils will be served by a mental health support team by the end of (i) 2023 and (ii) 2024.

Maria Caulfield: The information requested is not held centrally. We expect over 500 mental health support teams to be up and running by 2024. Each integrated care system (ICS) is allocated a share of the mental health support teams in each year based on their local population of children and young people, and ICSs are expected to work in collaboration with health and wider local system partners to determine where the new teams will be located. Each team is expected to provide sufficient capacity to deliver services to between 10 and 20 education settings. The rollout of mental health support teams beyond 2023/24 will be set out in due course.

Mental Health Services: Schools

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to rollout mental health support teams in schools after 2024.

Maria Caulfield: We are investing an additional £3.3 billion in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the National Health Service in England. Financial plans for those years, including for the further roll out of mental health support teams in schools and colleges beyond 2024, will be confirmed in due course.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to increase the availability of hormone replacement therapy implants in NHS hospitals.

Maria Caulfield: The services provided are a matter for the National Health Service locally. Under the NHS Constitution, patients in England have a right to medicines and treatments that have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for use in the NHS, if a prescriber discusses treatment options with the patient and says that they are clinically appropriate for them. There are also arrangements in place for additional, local decision making in the absence of a relevant NICE recommendation.

Vaccination: Immunosuppression

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including the partners of immunocompromised people in the vaccination programme in spring 2023.

Maria Caulfield: In February 2023, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) provided advice for the spring 2023 COVID-19 vaccination programme. As a precautionary measure, the JCVI advised a spring booster dose for the most vulnerable in the population, as a proportionate response, those over the age of 75 years, residents in a care home for older adults and those over five years old who are immunosuppressed. These groups were chosen as they continue to be at highest risk of severe COVID-19.The JCVI advice for the spring 2023 COVID-19 booster vaccination programme is consistent with that for the spring 2022 COVID-19 booster programme which also did not include household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism: Diagnosis

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time for an (a) autism and (b) ADHD diagnosis was for (i) everyone, (ii) children, (iii) young people and (iv) adults in the most recent year for which data is available.

Maria Caulfield: The data requested is not held centrally. However, data from the Mental Health Service Data Set (MHSDS) for 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022 in England indicates that 158,901 patients had an open referral (assessment not yet complete) for suspected autism. Of these, 27,050 have received a first attended contact within the year. The median wait time for these 27,050 patients was 207 days. 98,056 patients aged under 18 at the time of referral had an open referral for suspected autism. Of these 18,747 have received a first attended contact within the year. The median wait time for these 18,747 patients was 231 days. 60,860 patients aged 18 or over at time of referral had an open referral for suspected autism. Of these 8,309 have received a first attended contact within the year. The median wait time for these 8,309 patients was 127 days. We recognise that a lot of autism assessments for children are reported through the Community Services Data Set (CSDS), however it is not currently possible to correctly identify referrals for suspected autism in the CSDS and so we are unable to provide average wait times for this activity. Therefore, the current reported autism data comes from the MHSDS only. A number of providers of MHSDS data were affected by a cyber incident which has had a substantial impact on the data. Therefore, data presented in this answer are imputed estimates based on data from providers not impacted by the cyber incident. The trends and activity reported by these providers is, for the most part, reflective of the providers who were impacted by the cyber incident. However, extreme caution should be used when interpreting these figures. Data for waiting times for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments is not held centrally. The Department is looking into options for improving data collection and reporting on waiting times for ADHD assessments and diagnoses.

Department for Education: Social Media

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on the use of official Departmental social media accounts to comment on industrial disputes.

Will Quince: The role of Government communications is to use factual information to inform the public, explain policy and set out the Government’s position on matters of public interest, such as industrial action. We do this using a variety of channels, including social media.

Education: Coronavirus

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) prevalence of and (b) risk posed by the covid-19 variant XBB.1.16.

Maria Caulfield: The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) raised XBB.1.16 as a signal in monitoring through horizon scanning in early March 2023, as reported in Variant Technical Briefing 51, available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1141754/variant-technical-briefing-51-10-march-2023.pdf.This signal is currently under review and a risk assessment will be undertaken following evaluation of the latest data by the Variant Technical Group. This assessment and supporting data, including information such as lineage prevalence, will be published in or alongside the next UKHSA variant technical briefing.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with NHS trusts on the adequacy of the availability of hormone replacement therapies.

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has he made of the adequacy of the availability of hormone replacement therapies.

Maria Caulfield: There have been no specific discussions. However, the Department regularly engages with NHS England at a regional and national level on the supply of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medicines to ensure appropriate management plans are put in place where there are supply issues and to minimise any impact to patients. The Department also meets regularly with individual suppliers to discuss the supply position, identify issues and take action to address them. We are also holding quarterly roundtables with HRT manufacturers, wholesalers and community pharmacists to monitor progress and agree what more needs to be done to ensure supply is sufficient to meet demand.Access to high-demand products has improved since actions have been taken by industry with our support, as well as the issuance of Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) for some HRT products facing supply issues to limit dispensing to three months’ supply to even out distribution and allow specified alternative products to be supplied, as necessary. 21 SSPs for HRT products have been issued since April 2022. The majority of these have been withdrawn as supply issues have been resolved and only five SSPs remain in place.

Mental Health Services

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan.

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to publish a 10-year mental health plan instead of the major conditions strategy.

Maria Caulfield: The Government announced on 24 January 2023 that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy. Increasing multimorbidity and complexity of conditions means it is important to ensure strategies are joined up, with care and support centred around people. A joined up Major Conditions Strategy instead of a standalone mental health strategy will ensure that mental ill health is also considered alongside other physical health conditions, meaning the interactions between them are reflected in the resulting plans. We know that many of the risk factors that contribute to mental ill-health are cross-society in nature, and we will therefore be working closely with departments across Government.We are grateful to everyone who responded to our mental health call for evidence. The responses we received have been processed and will feed into the development of mental health and suicide prevention policies we include in the Major Conditions Strategy and the Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Department of Health and Social Care: Correspondence

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter dated 10 November 2022 from Andrew Cox, Senior Coroner for the coroner area of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, to the Secretary of State setting out matters revealed by inquests giving rise to concern and requesting a response by 10 January 2023, for what reason his Department has not responded to that correspondence.

Will Quince: We replied to Andrew Cox on 4 April 2023.

Coronavirus: Contracts

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many contracts relating to covid-19 are ongoing; and what the value is of those contracts.

Will Quince: A report from the Department’s central procurement and contracts database shows 220 contracts with a value of £9.7 billion awarded by the Department and the UK Health Security Agency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are still active and ongoing as of 3 April 2023.

Hospices: Costs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make additional funding available to hospices to help them meet increases in the cost of nurses' salaries.

Helen Whately: Palliative and end of life care, including hospice care, is commissioned locally by integrated care boards in response to the needs of their local population. Most hospices are independent, charitable organisations that remain free to set salary rates along with other terms and conditions at a level that reflects the skills and experience of their staff.

Dementia

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the extent to which infrastructure for the diagnosis of dementia adequately serves (a) each UK region and (b) rural areas in particular.

Helen Whately: NHS England has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Dementia Intelligence Network to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. This includes the assessment of underlying population characteristics such as rurality, ethnicity, and age. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The resource is currently being tested with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.

NHS: Solihull

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent NHS staff were working in Solihull in September 2019; and what the most recent equivalent figure is.

Will Quince: The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) National Health Service staff working in Hospital and Community Health Service settings is published by trust. The data for all trusts, including those in the integrated care system of Birmingham and Solihull for September 2019 and the latest time period is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statisticsAdditional information is also published on staff working in general practice and primary care networks. These however do not have consistent timeseries data for September 2019.The number of FTE NHS staff working in general practice settings is published by integrated care board (ICB) and at individual practice level, which is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-servicesThe number of FTE NHS staff working in Primary Care Network settings is published by ICBs and at individual Primary Care Network level, and is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/primary-care-network-workforce

Public Health

Paul Girvan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Government's position is on each of the proposed amendments to the World Health Organisation International Health Regulations 2005.

Will Quince: The United Kingdom supports targeted amendments of the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 alongside improvements to increase implementation to strengthen the preparedness for and response to future health emergencies in light of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.There are a number of areas within the Global Health architecture which we hope to strengthen and reform through the IHR amendment process; for example, transparency, timeliness of reporting and the Emergency Committee processes. Negotiations are currently ongoing, and the UK Government continues to work closely with World Health Organization member states in ensuring positive outcomes from the negotiations.

Debendox

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency plans to assess the long-term health implications of the mixture of Dicyclomine and Doxylamine in the previous pregnancy drug Debendox.

Will Quince: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) does not plan to assess the long-term health implications of the mixture of Dicyclomine and Doxylamine in the previous pregnancy drug Debendox. This medicine was withdrawn for commercial reasons from the market in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.MHRA remains alert to emerging evidence concerning the safety and efficacy of all medicines, taking action to protect the public when necessary. We encourage anyone to report side effect or adverse reactions to medicines they may have taken, however long ago, via the Yellow Card scheme.

Bereavement Counselling: Public Health

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will support a public health campaign to increase understanding of and reduce the stigma around conversations about death, dying and bereavement.

Neil O'Brien: There are no plans to run a public health campaign on bereavement. Bereavement is included as part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign under the ‘Life’s challenges’ section, helping to normalise the bereavement experience and signpost support. The Department and NHS England will also continue to support National Grief Awareness Week through their social media channels.

Older People: Advocacy

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a commissioner for older people and ageing.

Neil O'Brien: The Department has no current plans to assess the potential merits of appointing a commissioner for older people and ageing, as the needs of older people and healthy ageing are covered by the NHS Health Check and an ambitious prevention agenda to reduce individuals’ risk of ill health later in life.The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is taking targeted actions to tackle the most common preventable diseases, improving access and uptake of prevention services, and embedding prevention across health and care. For example, encouraging people in mid-life to stop smoking, reduce their alcohol consumption and improve their diet to help reduce the risk of developing dementia, disability and frailty in later life.Finally, the Government recently announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy which will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. The Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancers, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill-health and musculoskeletal conditions. An interim report will be published in the summer.

General Practitioners: Standards

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a fully funded plan to enable GP practices to respond to surges in patient demand.

Neil O'Brien: In the Autumn Statement we committed to publish a full recovery plan for primary care systems. This plan will set out detailed ambitions for recovery to deliver improved access to general practices (GPs), so that everyone who needs an appointment with their GP can get one within two weeks, and those who need an urgent appointment can get one on the same day. Our primary care recovery plan is being drafted and will be published in the coming weeks.

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2023 to Question 117889 on Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the evidence published by Public Health Scotland and The Lancet on 21 March 2023 on the impact of alcohol minimum unit pricing on deaths and hospital admissions attributable to alcohol consumption.

Neil O'Brien: The Government maintains an interest in the impact of minimum unit pricing in Scotland and looks forward to seeing the findings from the final evaluation. We will consider those findings in detail once available.

Chronic Illnesses: Prescriptions

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of increased prescription costs from 1 April 2023 on people living with long-term condition such as cystic fibrosis.

Neil O'Brien: No specific assessment has been made.

Pharmacy

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to financially support pharmacies.

Neil O'Brien: The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework: 2019 to 2024 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion per year to community pharmacies. In September last year we announced the agreement with the sector for the remainder of the five-year deal, which included a further one-off investment in the sector of £100 million. The Pharmacy Access Scheme financially supports pharmacies in areas where there are fewer pharmacies.

Prescriptions: Fees and Charges

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he last reviewed the prescription charge exemption list; and if he will review that list in 2023 in the context of the recent increase in prescription charges.

Neil O'Brien: The prescription charge exemption list was last reviewed in 2009, with the addition of cancer.While the Department has no plans to review the exemption list, there are a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place for those with the greatest need. Approximately 89% of prescription items are currently dispensed free of charge.In addition, those on a low income can apply for additional support through the NHS Low Income Scheme. This provides both full and partial help with a range of health costs, not just prescription charges. Those who do not qualify for low-income help, may benefit from the purchase of a prescription pre-payment certificate. This caps the cost of prescriptions at £111.60 per year, helping people to get all the medicines they need for just over £2 per week.

Cabinet Office

Proscribed Organisations

Sarah Jones: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government response to the Intelligence and Security Committee report entitled Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism, published on 30 March 2023, in what circumstances a person who is a member of a proscribed organisation could have their application for vetting clearance approved.

Jeremy Quin: It is an offence under Section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to belong to, or profess to belong to a proscribed organisation in the UK or overseas. United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) provides national security clearances to government, including certain posts in policing. As part of this, UKSV assesses an individual’s vetting application and any related risks. Where an individual is known to have or has declared affiliations or membership to a proscribed organisation, their application for national security vetting will not be approved. UKSV and government organisations have ongoing controls in place to manage staff and review their security clearances. These include annual reviews of security clearances for higher level clearance holders, change of circumstances forms, and additional reporting mechanisms through which concerns may be raised for all clearance holders. If subsequently there are security concerns relating either to an individual’s involvement with, or connections to proscribed organisations, their clearance will be withdrawn.

Disclosure of Information

Derek Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how information about Information Sharing Agreements made under the public service delivery provisions of the Digital Economy Act should be submitted given that the ISAregister@culture.gov.uk email address is disabled.

Alex Burghart: Public bodies should submit information about Information Sharing Agreements made under the public service delivery provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2017 to dea-data-sharing@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk

Protective Clothing: Procurement

Angela Rayner: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many companies have been excluded from participating in public procurement due to legal action being initiated by Government relating to contracts to supply personal protective equipment.

Angela Rayner: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether contracting authorities are regularly alerted by his Department about suppliers who have been excluded from procurement on the grounds of (a) fraud, (b) corruption and (c) other grounds under the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

Alex Burghart: Exclusion decisions are for individual departments. In the most serious of cases, the Cabinet Office may undertake a review of a supplier and issue guidance to departments but the decision on exclusion remains with the contracting authority.The Procurement Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, further strengthens the rules on supplier exclusion for fraud and corruption. It will also create a new 'debarment register', accessible to all public sector organisations, which will list companies who should be excluded from contracts.Information about exclusions relating to legal action being initiated by the Government relating to contracts to supply personal protective equipment is not held centrally.

Dominic Raab

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse is of engaging Adam Tolley KC to undertake an investigation into the conduct of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of formal complaints being considered by the investigation into the conduct of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Jeremy Quin: In line with the usual process, costs will be accounted for in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts. Mr Adam Tolley KC is undertaking his investigation and his findings will be made public.

Department for Education

T-levels: Finance

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2022 to Question 59062, on T-levels: Expenditure, what the total cost to the public purse has been for T levels in each financial year since 2017-18; and what the forecast spend is for each of the next three financial years.

Robert Halfon: T Levels are important new programmes for young people, designed in partnership with employers to prepare students for entry into skilled employment, an apprenticeship, or related technical study through further or higher education. Funding has been used to develop T Levels and grow the capacity to deliver them effectively.The information given in the previous response was taken from the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio data and relates to the baselined Whole Life Costs (WLC), rather than spend, at £918.5 million, and is not split by financial year. The total includes supporting teachers to deliver them effectively. Of this total, approximately £400 million capital funding has been provided to colleges and other providers for the first four waves of T Level delivery, starting in September 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 to improve the quality of facilities and equipment that will be used to deliver T Levels.Forecast data for T Level spend is dependent upon the number of young people who decide to take up a T Level, and the size of future T Levels depends on factors including the qualification specification, which in some cases is still being developed. An accurate forecast for the next 3 financial years is therefore not available.

Childcare: Local Government

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of local authorities which do not have sufficient childcare places in their area for children aged between 0 and 14.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of local authorities which do not have sufficient childcare place sin their area for children with disabilities aged between 0 and 17 years old.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of local authorities which do not have sufficient childcare places in their area for children aged between 0 and 5 years old.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of local authorities which (a) do not have sufficient childcare places in their area for children aged between 0 and 3 years old and (b) do not hold data on sufficiency for this age group.

Claire Coutinho: Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the Early Education and Childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing.Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.The department monitors take up of the early years entitlements through the annual census and publishes the results at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5.The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, sets out how an effective single national SEND and AP system will be delivered. Many of the proposals in the improvement plan will include early years education, including the funding we are providing to train up to 5,000 early years Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinators (SENCOs) to gain an accredited Level 3 Early Years SENCO qualification.

Schools: Attendance

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve school attendance (a) by students who are eligible for free school meals and from deprived areas and (b) generally.

Nick Gibb: The Department has a comprehensive strategy to drive a more consistent response from schools, trusts and Local Authorities to help keep children in school.The Department has published new, stronger expectations of schools, trusts and Local Authorities to work together to improve attendance. Alongside this, the Department has deployed 10 expert Attendance Advisers to work with Local Authorities and trusts to review attendance practices and develop improvement plans.The Department has established an improved, more timely flow of national pupil level attendance data. This will help schools, trusts and Local Authorities make better use of attendance data to identify those in need of support earlier, including those on free school meals (FSMs).The Department’s Attendance Action Alliance of system leaders work to remove barriers to attendance, particularly for vulnerable children, and reduce absence through pledges.The Department is piloting a mentor programme in Middlesborough that provides direct support to persistently and severely absent children, who are more likely to be eligible for FSMs. The Department is also offering intensive support to the most vulnerable through the Supporting Families and Virtual Schools Head extension programmes and those at risk in serious violence hotspots with our SAFE and Alternative Provision Taskforces. Alongside this, programmes such as Breakfast Clubs and the Holiday and Activities Food Programme stand to particularly support disadvantaged children’s attendance.The Department is also working closely with schools, trusts, Local Authorities and other partners to address specific attendance issues identified in Priority Education Investment Areas through the local area needs funding.

Schools: Sefton Central

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in Sefton Central have indicated in response to the Government questionnaire that they believe Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) was used in their construction.

Nick Gibb: The Department has sent a questionnaire on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) to all responsible bodies, asking them to provide information on RAAC in their estates. Responses from the questionnaire will allow the Department to better understand the prevalence of RAAC across the education estate and ensure the correct support is in place to meet the responsible bodies’ needs.​The questionnaire remains open for responsible bodies to respond to. Identifying RAAC can be difficult, so all reports of suspected RAAC are investigated by structural engineers commissioned by the Department and, where needed, site surveys are undertaken to confirm its presence. For this reason, the Department only holds partial data and is not able to provide details of schools that contain RAAC elements. The Department will consider releasing outcomes from the questionnaire in the future.​Since 2015, over £13 billion has been allocated for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion committed in the 2023/24 financial year.

Educational Visits: France

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the joint communiqué following the Franco-British summit, published on 10 March 2023, what progress the Government has made on facilitating school visits from France.

Nick Gibb: The Department is working closely with France to implement the range of important outcomes agreed at the Summit, including those on school group travel. As part of this, UK officials are working on implementing changes to the documentation requirements for school trips from France to the UK, including necessary legislative and operational changes. Further updates will be provided in due course.

Schools: Absenteeism

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made by age and gender of the number of children who have been persistently absent from school in each year since 2018.

Nick Gibb: The requested information is provided in the National Statistics publication on pupil absence, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.Information on persistent absence by National Curriculum year group, as an indicator of age, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/15c7e633-b610-471e-bb5b-08db371944c7.Information on persistent absence by gender is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/c4a68621-b08e-4cad-bb5c-08db371944c7.

Adoption: Ethnic Groups

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that a child may be placed for adoption in a family with a different racial and cultural background to his or her own if that is conducive to the child's overall welfare.

Claire Coutinho: Many adopters provide brilliant love and care for children, including those with whom they do not share the same ethnicity. The department’s National Adoption Strategy, published in July 2021, sets out a specific commitment to ensuring adopters get the support they need if they adopt children of a different ethnicity to their own. Further details are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006232/_Adoption_strategy_.pdf.Regional Adoption Agency leaders are looking to develop specific transracial resources for social workers and adopters, as part of their work in supporting children with their identity.

History: Curriculum

Andrew Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a requirement on UK schools to teach Black history as part of the national curriculum.

Nick Gibb: The freedom and flexibility in the National Curriculum programmes of study for history means that teachers can include black history as a natural part of the themes and eras in the curriculum, both in terms of British and world history, and their interconnection.Teaching a well sequenced history curriculum means that black history can be taught at all key stages of the curriculum. As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, pupils should be taught the history of different societies, and how different groups have contributed to the development of Britain. This can include the voices and experiences of black people in Britain.The Department published a blog on Black History Month in October 2022. This emphasised that there is scope in the curriculum to teach black history all year. References to high quality curriculum resources were included and the blog highlighted how important it is to celebrate the contribution black communities and individuals have made over the centuries in shaping a dynamic and diverse Britain. The blog is available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/10/03/black-history-month-how-black-history-is-taught-in-our-schools-2/.The Department is developing a model history curriculum to support teaching of a diverse and well sequenced history curriculum. Working with an expert panel that includes history educators, historians and head teachers, the model curriculum will provide an exemplar of a knowledge rich, coherent approach to teaching history. This guidance is due to be published in 2024.

Schools: Absenteeism

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the proportion of children persistently absent from school whose families are in contact with local authority social services in each of the last five years.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the proportion of children persistently absent from school who have been the subject of a safeguarding referral in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb: The Department does not hold the information in the format requested, but absence rates for children in need of support from social services are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/outcomes-for-children-in-need-including-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities-in-england/2022.This data relates to children in need, children on a child protection plan and children looked after by local authorities in England.Persistent absence rates for these children at 31 March between 2016/17 and 2021/22 are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/bd25d934-c0b5-4de2-81df-75eec0e9bbbb.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Wind Power: Planning Permission

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to revise the National Planning Policy Framework on the development of new onshore wind farms; and if he will make a statement.

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the impact of the National Planning Policy Framework on the development of new onshore wind farms.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of revising the National Planning Policy Framework to permit the development of new onshore wind farms in England.

Rachel Maclean: We have consulted on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework for onshore wind. We will respond in due course.

Incinerators: Location

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has guidance on the distance between an industrial incinerator and (a) residential buildings and (b) schools.

Rachel Maclean: This is a devolved matter and the information provided relates to England only.The National Planning Policy Framework requires that planning policies and decisions should ensure that new development is appropriate for its location taking into account the likely effects (including cumulative effects) of pollution on health, living conditions and the natural environment, as well as the potential sensitivity of the site or the wider area to impacts that could arise from the development.

Energy Performance Certificates

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Energy Performance Certificate in improving the energy efficiency of older housing stock.

Lee Rowley: The Government recognises that there are concerns surrounding the effectiveness of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and intends to consult on reforms this year.

Voting Rights: British Nationals Abroad

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to bring forward secondary legislation to implement the provisions of the Elections Act 2022 on Extension of franchise for parliamentary elections: British citizens overseas.

Dehenna Davison: Announcements will be set out in the usual way.

Local Resilience Forums

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the National Resilience Framework, published in December 2022, what estimate he has made of the cost to (a) recruit and (b) employ Chief Resilience Officers for each Local Resilience Forum for the next five years.

Dehenna Davison: The UK Government Resilience Framework (UKGRF) commits the government to piloting proposals to strengthen Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) by 2025, with full implementation of the proposed changes to follow, by 2030. We are working closely with LRFs to take these pilots forward and the outcome of these pilots, which will inform our approach to any national roll out, including the cost of any proposed changes. This is reflected in the commitment in the UKGRF to consider options for funding models for any future expanded responsibilities and expectations of LRFs in England.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Northern Ireland

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing funding for Women's Group Projects in Northern Ireland who were unsuccessful bids for the Shared Prosperity Fund.

Dehenna Davison: My department is committed to addressing economic inactivity in Northern Ireland through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and recognises the particular needs of women in this regard. All funded projects will support economically inactive women.A number of organisations that have a strong focus on supporting women have been successful either as a lead bidder or a project partner. These include: Women's TEC, Women's Resource Development Agency, Women's Aid, First Steps Women's Centre, Women in Business, Northern Ireland Rural Women's Network, Atlas Women's Centre, Ballybeen Women's Centre, Falls Women's Centre, Footprints Women's Centre, Greenway Women's Centre, Shankill Women's Centre and Windsor Women's Centre.No further UKSPF funding is expected to be available for unsuccessful bidders.

Buildings: Fire Prevention

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to support leaseholders who are not entitled to support under the Building Safety Act 2022 and who cannot meet the costs of remedial fire safety works.

Lee Rowley: There is a range of support in place for those leaseholders who do not own a qualifying lease under the leaseholder protections set out in the Building Safety Act 2022. All leaseholders in buildings above 11 metres or five storeys are protected where the developer has signed our developer remediation contract or where the freeholder is, or is associated with, the developer.  In addition, remediation contribution orders provide all leaseholders, in relevant buildings, with a new route for recovering historical safety remediation costs.Leaseholders wishing to understand more about the support available to them can seek free information from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), funded by the Department.

Buildings: Fire Prevention

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the Leaseholder-owned buildings (11m+ or 5 storeys+): call for evidence consultation.

Lee Rowley: We will publish a response in due course.

Department for Transport

Railway Stations: Access

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to announce the allocation of funding for the next round of Access for All bids.

Huw Merriman: The Department is currently assessing over 300 stations nominated for Access for All funding beyond 2024. I hope to be in a position to announce successful projects later this year.

Railways: Concessions

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for the Disabled Persons Railcard to include people with autism spectrum conditions who do not claim benefits; and what discussions he has had with stakeholders on this topic.

Huw Merriman: As per our Inclusive Transport Strategy commitment, the Department alongside the Rail Delivery Group and the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) is currently undertaking a review of the Disabled Persons Railcard. The review is considering the eligibility criteria and also the options to verify entitlement.

West Coast Main Line

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing new competitive open-access train service contracts on the West Coat Mainline.

Huw Merriman: The Department sees an important role for open access, with improved connectivity and choice for passengers key parts of rail reform. The Department assesses any new open access application individually and responds based upon the merits of specific proposals; this is the case for applications to run services on the West Coast Mainline or any other part of the network. Access to the rail network is ultimately a matter for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in its role as independent regulator for the rail industry.

A5: Repairs and Maintenance

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to identify congested sections of the A5 between Hinckley and Tamworth that can be improved through the Third Road Investment Strategy.

Mr Richard Holden: To help identify the current pressures and future needs of the strategic road network, National Highways is developing its route strategies for the third road period. The Hinckley to Tamworth section of the A5 has been considered principally within the South Midlands route strategy. National Highways has developed a number of objectives for the route and identified a series of potential areas for further investigation. The interim findings will be published shortly alongside the Department’s consultation on RIS3.

A5: Repairs and Maintenance

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to ensure that the A5 between Hinckley and Tamworth is considered for future improvements as part of the Third Road Investment Strategy.

Mr Richard Holden: On 9 March 2023, the Secretary of State for Transport made a statement to Parliament. This set out that schemes originally being considered as part of the pipeline of schemes for potential inclusion in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) between 2025 and 2030 will continue to be developed to an appropriate stage, but for consideration for inclusion during RIS4 (beyond 2030). This includes the A5 Hinckley to Tamworth scheme.

Bus Services: Fares

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the £2 bus fare cap beyond June 2023.

Mr Richard Holden: The Government is providing up to £135 million to help bus operators cap single fares at £2 on services in England outside London from 1 January until 30 June. The fare cap is designed to be a short-term intervention and will conclude at the end of June. We are monitoring its impacts and outcomes of the cap so that we will be in position to understand the changes it has brought on passenger savings, satisfaction, any effect on patronage and bus use. We will be using these results to inform future approaches, policies and interventions to support the bus sector. The Government is also providing over £1 billion to support the delivery of local Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP), which will include measures to introduce lower bus fares, including local £2 fare caps in places including Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region.

Bus Services: Solihull

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department provides for discounted bus travel in Solihull.

Mr Richard Holden: Whilst decisions on fares offered on commercial services are for bus operators to make, the Government is providing up to £135 million to help bus operators cap single fares at £2 on services in England outside London from 1 January until 30 June. Over 140 operators are participating in the scheme, covering more than 5,000 routes, including in Solihull. The Government is also providing over £1 billion to support the delivery of local Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP), which will include measures to introduce lower bus fares. West Midlands Combined Authority have been allocated up to £87.9 million to deliver the measures outlined in its BSIP.The Government also provides over £200 million every year to bus operators through the Bus Service Operators Grant to help keep fares down and enable operators to run services that might otherwise be unprofitable and could lead to cancellation.

High Speed 2 Line: Lichfield

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the planned timetable is for (a) completion of engineering works and (b) making good of (i) ground works and (ii) roadways for phase 1 of the HS2 route north of Birmingham in (A) the vicinity of the A38 at Streethay and (B) the rest of the HS2 works in Lichfield constituency.

Huw Merriman: HS2 works in the Lichfield constituency continue to progress as planned. As elsewhere on the route, HS2 Ltd would communicate updates to programmes of works in this area to the community and local stakeholders.

Department for Transport: Billing

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of invoices received by his Department in (a) quarter three and (b) quarter four of the 2021-2022 financial year were paid within five days.

Jesse Norman: The Department aims to pay all valid invoices within 5 working days of receipt. In financial year 2021 to 2022 for quarter 3 the Department paid 90% of undisputed supplier invoices within the 5-working day target, and for quarter 4 the Department paid 90% of undisputed supplier invoices within the 5-working day target. The information for financial year 2022 to 2023 will be available in May 2023.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that the UK is able to take advantage of (a) drones and remotely piloted aircraft and (b) other emerging flight technologies.

Jesse Norman: The UK’s strategic vision is to maximise benefits of future flight technologies – for the economy and for communities – whilst ensuring their emergence is both safe and secure, positioning us as a global leader. The Government will soon publish a Future of Flight Plan to set out strategic direction for this burgeoning industry, developed through the newly established Future of Flight Industry Group (FFIG). The first meeting of the FFIG was held on 8 March 2023 and chaired by the Aviation Minister.

Driving Licences: Ukraine

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to extend the period that Ukrainian refugees can use a Ukrainian driving license to drive in the UK.

Mr Richard Holden: My Department appreciates the unique circumstances that Ukrainians who have come to the UK find themselves in and continues to explore options to support the Ukrainian community residing in the UK. Earlier this month, we launched a consultation proposing to extend the period Ukrainians may use their driving licenses in the UK for up to 36 months, matching the initial length of the Ukraine visa schemes. The consultation closes on the 2nd of May and can be found on GOV.UK.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Abduction: Children

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution made by the Minister of State for the FCDO, the hon. Member for Berwick-Upon-Tweed during the debate on International Child Abduction on 22 March 2023 (Official Report, vol 730, col 148WH) whether the hon. Member for Macclesfield has invited Members with concerns to discuss them with his Department at a policy level; and if he will make a statement.

David Rutley: The Government takes International parental child abduction very seriously. When a child has been abducted, our consular staff provide empathetic consular support to those affected, including to signpost them to relevant partner organisations. Following the issues raised in the debate on 22 March, consular staff are exploring with stakeholders what more we may be able to do. We will then seek to follow up with interested members in due course.

Hong Kong: Official Visits

Bob Seely: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies on the charging of Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law in Hong Kong of the potential visit in April 2023 of Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Hong Kong Government.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: We have been clear that the deliberate targeting of journalists and businessmen such as Mr Lai under the National Security Law (NSL) is unacceptable. The Minister for the Indo-Pacific met with Mr Lai's international Legal team on 10 January and diplomats at the Consulate-General in Hong Kong will continue to attend Mr Lai's court proceedings. We have taken a number of measures in response to the situation in Hong Kong, including the bespoke immigration route for BN(O)s, the suspension of the UK-Hong Kong extradition treaty and the extension of the arms embargo applied to China to Hong Kong. We will continue to use our channels with the Hong Kong and Chinese Governments to raise our strong objection to the NSL and the erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.

Tibet: Oppression

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his (a) Chinese counterpart and (b) other international partners on the oppression of the Tibetan people.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: We are aware of reports of human rights violations in Tibet, including severe restrictions on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), Tibetans dying in custody, coercive control, labour transfer schemes, and Tibetan parents being coerced and intimidated into sending their children to boarding schools. We continue to raise the situation in Tibet with the Chinese authorities. We also coordinate with partners to draw international attention to the human rights situation in Tibet. In June 2022, a UK led lobbying effort helped to secure the support of 46 other countries for a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which highlighted the situation in Tibet, and called on the Chinese authorities to abide by their human rights obligations. In March, we raised the issue of boarding schools in our Item 4 statement at the UN HRC. We will continue to press China to cease human rights violations.

Kenya: LGBT+ People

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the safety of LGBTI people in Kenya; and whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure the safety of those people.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: LGBT+ rights are fundamental human rights. The UK is aware that the Family Protection Bill will increase criminalisation of LGBT+ persons in Kenya, which threatens minority rights and risks persecution and discrimination of people across Kenya. Through our High Commission in Nairobi, we make regular representations to the Government of Kenya and other relevant stakeholders calling for the human rights of LGBT+ people to be upheld. The UK will continue to encourage diversity and tolerance and stands in solidarity with the LGBT+ community in Kenya and all those working to defend and protect their rights. The UK Government is firmly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country.

Unitaid

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans his Department has to disburse the UK’s pledge to Unitaid before 2026.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: I (Minister Mitchell) made a Written Ministerial Statement [https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-03-30/hlws691] on 30 March setting out indicative figures for FCDO's Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. These include indicative total figures for all multilateral organisations of £3.311 billion in 2022-2023 and £3.974 billion in 2023-2024. We are working with multilateral partners on the profile of commitments. Funding for 2024-25 onwards are subject to the new Spending Review.

Development Aid: Education

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase basic education Official Development Assistance investments in countries where foundational learning levels are lowest but the UK has not recently provided any assistance.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO prioritises basic reading, maths and socio-emotional skills (foundational learning) for all. In 2022, we launched the Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning to reduce learning poverty (being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10) by 50 percent by 2030. Our education research investments, including the What Works Hub for Global Education, supports middle-income countries such as Brazil, Pakistan and Kenya to learn from each other to understand what works to reduce learning poverty. The UK supports children in over 80 countries through our £430 million contribution to the Global Partnership for Education and £80 million contribution to Education Cannot Wait.

Sierra Leone: Elections

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the monitoring of the 2023 General Election in Sierra Leone.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The outcome of the June 2023 elections is for the people of Sierra Leone to decide. The UK and Sierra Leone are close friends and we hold regular, frank conversations with senior government interlocutors and other key stakeholders on issues of good governance, the rule of law and the importance of free, fair and peaceful elections in 2023. The Foreign Secretary passed on these messages to Sierra Leone's President and Foreign Minister during his visit in March 2023. The British High Commission in Freetown's 'Promoting Democracy and Electoral Freedom' Programme supports cross community dialogue among voters in Sierra Leone, with a focus on inclusion and violence prevention. The High Commission will also be fielding on-the-ground observers across the country throughout the election period.

Sierra Leone: Development Aid

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the distribution of Official Development Assistance funds within Sierra Leone.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is a champion for international development and one of the most generous global aid donors. In Sierra Leone, as around the world, we work closely with the Government to support its own national development plans. Decisions on how to distribute funds are taken in Sierra Leone against the High Commission's business plan and guided by FCDO priorities, the Integrated Review, International Development Strategy and Africa Strategy. Most recently, UK Aid in Sierra Leone has supported inclusive education, maternal and new-born health, girls' and women's rights and energy access. Our funding goes to a range of implementing partners who are subject to rigorous procurement and due diligence. We adhere closely to best practice outlined in the FCDO's Programme Operating Framework, including results monitoring.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his Israeli counterparts on the violent incursions at the Al Aqsa mosque.

David Rutley: The UK is a strong supporter of freedom of religion or belief and calls for places of worship to be respected. We value Jordan's important role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem and we condemn the Israeli police violence at the Al Aqsa Mosque. When Israeli security forces conduct operations, they must ensure they are proportionate and in accordance with international law. The Foreign Secretary has emphasised these points to his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen during his recent visit to London and since the incident at Al Aqsa.

Pakistan: Elections

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the Government of Pakistan on the operation of free, fair and safe elections in that country.

Leo Docherty: We respect Pakistan's democratic process and do not interfere in its domestic political affairs. We engage regularly with the Government of Pakistan, including on the upholding of democratic norms.

Development Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to publish his Department's Programme Allocations by country for 2023-24.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO is committed to transparency with the public and predictability with our partners. My (Minister Mitchell) Written Ministerial Statement of 30 March sets out how we have allocated Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2022-23 and for 2023-24. We plan to publish full breakdowns of the 2023-24 allocations, including by country in the FCDO Annual Report and Accounts 2022 to 2023 on 13 July.

Kathleen Poole

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make representations to the Swedish authorities to help prevent the potential deportation of Kathleen Poole.

Leo Docherty: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 February 2023 to Question UIN 146805 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-02-17/146805. We continue to engage with the Swedish Authorities on the case of Ms Poole. Consular colleagues are in frequent contact with the Migration Agency and police. His Majesty's ambassador has raised Ms Poole's case with senior officials and Ministers. Officials will continue to offer support to Ms Poole's family.

Iran: Human Rights

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) support persecuted Christians in Iran, and (b) combat gender specific persecution of women in that country.

David Rutley: The UK supports the fundamental rights of women, and religious minority groups, including Christians, in Iran by ensuring the Iranian regime is held to account. We do this in part through our sanctions designations: HMG has announced seven rounds of Iran human rights sanctions since October 2022. We also work with our international partners in multilateral fora, for example by removing Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. We also raise human rights directly with the Iranian authorities at all appropriate opportunities, including through our Ambassador in Tehran, to ensure the regime is in no doubt about the political price it is paying for its actions.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Taiwo Owatemi: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the consequences for his policies of the recent raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces.

David Rutley: As The Foreign Secretary said in his statement on 7 April, the UK condemns Israeli police violence at the Al Aqsa Mosque. When Israeli security forces conduct operations, they must ensure they are proportionate and in accordance with international law. The UK is a strong supporter of freedom of religion or belief and calls for places of worship to be respected. We continue to value Jordan's important role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem. As the subsequent rocket fire from Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza shows, incidents such as those at Al Aqsa can be the trigger for a cycle of violence.

Israeli Settlements

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on the recently approved 7,000 new housing units in the West Bank by Israeli planning authorities.

David Rutley: The UK's position on settlements is clear. They are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace, and threaten the physical viability of a two-state solution. The Foreign Secretary has repeatedly raised this issue with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, when they met in person on 21 March, and in phone calls on 10 January and 7 March. The Minister of State for the Middle East, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon also raised this point with the Israeli Government during his visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) in January. Lord Ahmad also reaffirmed the UK's opposition to Israeli settlement expansion during his 31 March meeting with Palestinian Head of Mission Zomlot.

Unitaid

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the work of Unitaid on global health outcomes.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Unitaid has become a significant actor within the global health landscape. Over their last strategic period (2017-2021), Unitaid contributed to saving 758,000 lives, averted 133 million cases of mortality from HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, and evidenced $2.3 billion in economic savings reached through the improved affordability of treatments due to voluntary licenses and health system efficiencies that are expected to have a demonstrable effect on progress towards the global health targets, in particular for HIV, TB and malaria.

Treasury

UK Infrastructure Bank

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the paragraph 3.26 of the Office for Budget Responsibility's Economic and fiscal outlook - March 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's findings that cumulative UK Infrastructure Bank outlays between 2022-23 and 2025-26 will be 37 per cent lower than the initial estimate.

Andrew Griffith: The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) was launched in June 2021 to increase investment into infrastructure and to tackle climate change and support regional and local economic growth across the UK. In its first Strategic Plan in summer 2022, UKIB set out that, subject to the pipeline of investible projects in each year, it aims to deploy up to £3 billion of debt and equity and £2.5 billion of guarantees a year, committing its initial £22 billion of financial capacity over five to eight years. To date, UKIB have announced 15 deals in total, investing approximately £1.4 billion and unlocking over £6 billion in private capital and supported over 4,700 jobs.

Electronic Funds Transfer: Fraud

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government is taking steps to ensure that that the Mandatory Reimbursement Framework prioritises protection for vulnerable customers.

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the context of plans to introduce a mandatory reimbursement framework for cases of authorised push payment fraud, what steps his Department has taken to assess the potential merits of requiring (a) online platforms and (b) telecoms companies to implement increased fraud prevention measures alongside introducing that framework.

Andrew Griffith: The Government recognises the growing threat posed to consumers by Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, with increasingly sophisticated scams that can be detrimental to people’s lives. That is why the Government has introduced legislation as part of the Financial Services & Markets Bill to enable the Payment Systems Regulator to require payment service providers (including banks) to reimburse APP scam victims, and placed a duty on the PSR to act in relation to the Faster Payments system (over which vast majority of APP scams currently occur) within 6 months of the legislation coming into force. Following Royal Assent, the PSR will have the powers to deliver an effective reimbursement requirement, and the Government believes this will ensure more consistent and comprehensive reimbursement for APP scam victims. In its recent consultation on mandatory APP scam reimbursement, the PSR has proposed requiring all banks and other payment service providers sending payments over the Faster Payments system to reimburse APP scam victims, including requiring that vulnerable customers are reimbursed without exception. The Government looks forward to hearing the outcomes of this consultation. It is right that all industries at risk of facilitating fraud should be prioritising protecting their customers, and the Government is taking steps to ensure that is the case, including through the Online Safety Bill. We will continue to monitor cross-sector efforts to mitigate fraud and protect customers, and will ensure that those sectors which give rise to fraud risk make a meaningful contribution to the reduction of fraud in the UK, including through the forthcoming Fraud Strategy.

Economic Situation

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of (a) the world economic outlook published by the IMF in April 2023 and (b) the projections for the UK economy included in that publication.

Andrew Griffith: The IMF growth forecast for the UK 2023 has been upgraded by more than any other G7 country. The IMF say we are on the right track for economic growth. As well as increasing growth in the medium term, reforms in the Spring Budget also boost sustainable economic growth over the long term – the impact of which will not have been included within the IMF’s forecast horizon of 2024.

Pensions: Tax Allowances

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of how many people in each nation and region of the UK will benefit from the (a) new annual allowance for pension contributions and (b) the removal of the limit on pension saving.

Andrew Griffith: Information on the increase to the annual allowance and abolition of the lifetime allowance can be found in the Pension Tax Limits Policy paper Pension Tax Limits - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Debts: Ethiopia

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of Ethiopia's progress under the G20 common framework for debt treatments; whether he has made an estimate of the timescale for Ethiopia's private and bilateral creditors agreeing to a potential debt restructuring of that country; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Griffith: Ethiopia requested debt relief under the Common Framework in February 2021. Progress towards this stalled due to the conflict in northern Ethiopia and resulting inability for an IMF-supported reform programme, a key requirement of the Common Framework. Alongside our partners at the IMF and G20 we encourage swift progress on a debt treatment for Ethiopia under an envisaged IMF-supported program when conditions allow. We also the welcome the progress on implementing the peace deal, which will be key to sustained prosperity for all Ethiopians.

Garages and Petrol Stations: Staff

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the impact of unstaffed petrol stations which require a bank account to have a particular balance to buy petrol on people with low incomes.

Andrew Griffith: Previously, when using a self-service pump at a petrol station, a customer would have £1 temporarily deducted from their bank account as a form of pre-authorisation to confirm that their card was valid. Under this system, customers might wait up to three days for their account to accurately reflect the money spent to fill up their tank, and to have the £1 recredited. This could make budgeting and managing finances challenging and risk customers filling up without sufficient funds. Under new industry-led rules, pump payment terminals now verify with the customer’s bank that the funds to pay for petrol are available before they begin filling their tank. This can be up to £120 in value, although individual retailers may institute a lower amount. If a customer’s bank balance is below the set amount, they are able to purchase fuel, but only an amount equivalent to their bank balance. The customer’s balance should now also update immediately to reflect the amount of petrol purchased. These new rules ensure that customers can purchase the fuel they need with the funds available to them, whilst also protecting retailers.

Electricity Generation: Taxation

Geraint Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an investment allowance for the renewable energy sector within the Electricity Generator Levy.

James Cartlidge: As announced at Autumn Statement from January 2023 a 45% tax is being levied on the extraordinary returns being realised by certain electricity generators. At Spring Statement it was forecast to raise around £14 billion over the next 5 years which will help fund support for households and business with their energy bills as well as vital public services. The Electricity Generator Levy (EGL) and the Electricity Profits Levy (EPL) are designed very differently. Unlike the EPL, the EGL is not a tax on a comprehensive measure of profit that is calculated after recognition of total revenues and costs. Instead, it is payable on the portion of revenues that exceed the long-run average for electricity prices. Rather than providing an investment allowance the government has taken into account the potential impact on investment in the design of the levy with the benchmark price, £75/MWh, being set at 1.5 times the pre-crisis level and indexed to CPI.

Business Rates

Julian Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to modernise the business rates system.

Victoria Atkins: The Non-Domestic Rating (NDR) Bill, currently before the House, delivers a substantial set of reforms to the business rates system announced at the conclusion of the 2020 Review of Business Rates. The measures in the Bill will make business rates fairer for taxpayers, incentivise investment and decarbonisation, and improve the administration of the tax. The NDR Bill delivers:More frequent revaluations, from 5-yearly to 3-yearly, to make the business rates system fairer and more responsive for ratepayersA new Improvement Relief to incentivise businesses to invest in their properties, and a Heat Networks Relief to encourage green investmentA reform to Transitional Relief to remove the requirement for revenue neutralityIncreased transparency in how rateable values are calculatedHMRC’s Digitalising Business Rates programmeAdministrative reforms to make the system more efficient

Valuation Office Agency: Appeals

Feryal Clark: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how long on average appeals to the Valuation Office Agency have taken from date of application to final result, in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Feryal Clark: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many appeals to the Valuation Office Agency were successful in (a) England, (b) London and (c) Enfield in each of the last five years.

Victoria Atkins: There are two forms of formal challenge (appeal) for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rating disputes. A formal challenge submitted to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and appeals to the independent Valuation Tribunal (VT). Legislation permits a taxpayer to appeal to VT when they disagree with the VOA’s decision on the Council Tax band of their domestic property, or Rateable Value of their non-domestic (business) property. The VOA publish annual statistics on the number of challenges received, for both domestic and non-domestic properties, including the outcomes, broken down by region. You can view them here: Domestic properties, ‘Challenges and changes: financial year summaries March 2022’, Table_CTCAC1.3: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-tax-challenges-and-changes-in-england-and-wales-march-2022 Non-domestic properties, see ‘Non-domestic Rating: Checks, Challenges and Changes, England’ spreadsheets for each year, refer to tables citing Challenges: www.gov.uk/government/collections/non-domestic-rating-challenges-and-changes

Waste Disposal: Crime

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the economic impact of waste crime and landfill tax fraud.

James Cartlidge: Waste crime – including landfill tax fraud - is a blight on local communities, harms the environment and undermines legitimate businesses operating in the waste sector. The government is committed to tackling this issue, through a multi-agency response led by Defra and the Joint Unit for Waste Crime. The government regularly publishes an assessment of the tax gap across the tax system. HMRC has collected and protected over £800m in additional Landfill Tax since 2018 with ever closer collaboration between government departments to make this possible and lay the foundations for further strengthening the regime. As part of next steps on the Landfill Tax Review, the government will consider the impact of any potential changes to the tax on Landfill Tax fraud, evasion and waste crime and the interaction of potential changes with upcoming environmental regulatory reforms designed to improve compliance and tackle waste crime.

National Insurance Contributions

Virginia Crosbie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the tax system to reflect the difference in employer national insurance contributions for those who are employed compared to those who are self-employed; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of that policy on levels of (a) recruitment and (b) retention in the construction industry.

Victoria Atkins: The Government recognises the key role that entrepreneurs play in the UK economy and will help them succeed by making the UK the best place in the world to start and grow their businesses. The National Insurance contributions (NICs) system was designed so that both employees and employers pay NICs, so that the burden for paying contributory benefits as well as contributing to the funding of the NHS, was spread as widely and fairly as possible. As self-employed people do not have a permanent employer, it is right that they only pay self-employed NICs. To support small businesses to grow fulfil their potential and support them with the costs of employment, the Government increased the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000 in April 2022 which means that businesses and charities with an employer NICs bills of £100,000 or less in the previous tax year are able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer NICs bills. In 2021-22, the construction industry was the second larger beneficiary by sector of the Employment Allowance, with 145,000 employers benefitting from the allowance. The Government is also providing businesses with the support they need to invest and innovate, through measures like permanently setting the Annual Investment Allowance at its highest ever level of £1 million; introducing a £13.6 billion package of business rates support; and full expensing which allows business to write off the cost of investment in one go. The Government keeps all taxes under review.

Electricity Generation: Taxation

Geraint Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the Electricity Generator Levy on investment in (a) onshore and offshore wind infrastructure and (b) other sources of renewable energy.

Geraint Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the impact of the Electricity Generator Levy on energy security and net zero objectives.

James Cartlidge: As announced at Autumn Statement from January 2023 a 45% tax is being levied on the extraordinary returns being realised by certain electricity generators. This is forecast to raise around £14 billion over the next 5 years to help fund support for households and business with their energy bills as well as vital public services. The levy will only be applied to extraordinary returns defined as returns from selling electricity for a period at an average price of more than £75/MWh. This is approximately 1.5 times the average price of electricity over the last decade. The Government considers this to be a proportionate approach to recovering a share of the extraordinary returns electricity generators are receiving while leaving generators a share of the revenue from high electricity prices. The Office for Budget Responsibility considered the impact of the levy on its economic and fiscal forecasts which was published at Autumn Statement in its economic and fiscal outlook. Further information on the impact of the policy is set out in a Tax Information Impact Note which is available on www.gov.uk The Government continues to provide considerable support for investment in renewables Since 2014 the Contracts for Difference scheme has enabled around 26GW of new low-carbon capacity, with generators receiving almost £6 billion net in price support. The UK has reduced emissions faster than any other G7 nation, with 41% of our electricity coming from renewables last year, compared to 22% in the USA.

Foreign Companies: Registration

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many offshore company trust data requests his Department have (a) received and (b) responded to since 1 September 2022.

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many legitimate interest trust data requests his Department have (a) received and (b) responded to since 1 September 2022.

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average response time to legitimate interest trust data requests has been since 1 September 2022.

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average response time to offshore company trust data requests has been since 1 September 2022.

Victoria Atkins: Since 1 September 2022, HMRC has received 19 Trust Data Requests under the ‘Offshore Company’ category and 29 Trust Data Requests under the ‘Legitimate Interest’ category. This figure includes all contact received through this route and may include some contact that is not appropriate to the trust data request process. HMRC has reviewed 28 of these requests to date and identified 16 that were submitted in error. Of those reviewed and not submitted in error, HMRC has responded to six ‘Offshore Company’ requests and two ‘Legitimate Interest’ requests. The average response time to ‘Offshore Company’ requests since 1 September 2022 is 20 weeks. The average response time to ‘Legitimate Interest’ requests since the 1 September 2022 is 17 weeks.

Department for Business and Trade

Employment Tribunals Service

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Answer of 21 January 2020 to Question 3164 on Employment Tribunals Service: Fines, how many (a) warning notices and (b) financial penalty notices were issued to respondent employers under section 150 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 for failure to pay an employment tribunal award in each year since 2016-17.

Kevin Hollinrake: Workers should receive the money they are owed. We are committed to ensuring this happens and that they are protected from exploitation.As stated in the answer to HL6685, data held on Employment Tribunal Penalties is derived from a live case management system used for internal purposes which has not been subject to sufficient validation that would be required for us to release this to Parliament at this time.We will consider what data we may be able to publish on this subject in the future.

Measurement

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the consultation entitled Choice on units of measurement: markings and sales, published on 3 June 2022, when the Government expects to publish its response to that consultation; and how many responses to that consultation have been analysed as of 13 April 2023.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government has received over 100,000 responses to the consultation on the Choice on units of measurement: markings and sale and will publish its response in due course.

Audit: Reform

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many officials in her Department are working on legislative proposals on audit reform.

Kevin Hollinrake: There are fifteen officials in the Department for Business and Trade working on legislative proposals on reform of audit and corporate governance.

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when she plans to provide the final wording of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to Parliament.

Nigel Huddleston: Following the substantial conclusion of negotiations on Friday 31 March, the next step will be to officially sign the agreement that the Government has struck with CPTPP Parties. This will take place following the completion of the legal review process, which is now ongoing The negotiation outcome will be set out in a Protocol of Accession. This document and the UK’s agreed market access schedules will be published at the point of signature.

Royal Mail

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has met Royal Mail since becoming Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

Kevin Hollinrake: As Minister responsible for postal services policy, I have met Royal Mail to discuss a range of issues relating to its role as the universal postal service provider.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Packaging: Recycling

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason closed loop recycling systems are not being recognised until 2025 for those manufacturers who have already put in place sustainable processes; and for what reason closed loop recycling incentives will not include meal trays.

Rebecca Pow: Under Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR), producers who collect and recycle consumer packaging waste at their own cost, where it is not commonly collected by local authorities for recycling, will be able to reduce their obligation to pay fees to cover the costs of managing household packaging from 2024. This is intended to support our transition to higher recycling rates as we invest in improved collection, sorting and recycling systems for hard to recycle packaging, or transition to using packaging that is already widely recyclable. Packaging that is already commonly collected from households will not be eligible for this offset as this would reduce the efficiency of household collections and increase the risk of fraud, except where it is part of an established re-use system where the same item of packaging is collected, cleaned and re-used multiple times before being recycled. This will provide an added incentive for producers to move to systems of re-useable packaging.

Trapping

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2023 to Question 117640 on Trapping, what recent discussions she has had with the devolved administrations on the potential merits of banning snares.

Trudy Harrison: A date is being sought for a meeting with Lesley Griffiths, MS for Rural Affairs in the Welsh Government. I will be interested to discuss the Welsh Government’s plans to ban the use of snares in Wales. I also hope to engage with Mairi Gougeon MSP in the Scottish Government given her responsibilities cover animal welfare, wildlife management and wildlife crime. In the meantime, my officials are in regular contact with colleagues in the devolved administrations as this government continues to consider how snares are regulated as part of our continued drive to maintain the highest animal welfare standards in the world.

Sheep Scab: Disease Control

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps (a) the Government and (b) her Department are taking with devolved authorities to develop a sheep scab control programme covering the UK.

Mark Spencer: The UK Chief Veterinary Officer and Devolved Administrations work collaboratively on all areas of animal disease. However, animal health is a devolved matter. Sheep Scab is addressed in different ways across the devolved nations, for example in Scotland where it is a notifiable disease. It is therefore appropriate that each nation of the United Kingdom treats Sheep Scab in the way that fits best with their priorities.

Fly-tipping

Virginia Crosbie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in view of the incidence of fly tipping, whether she is taking steps with local authorities to increase access to recycling and refuse centres.

Rebecca Pow: Last year, Defra issued a call for evidence on booking systems at household waste recycling centres alongside the consultation on preventing charges for DIY waste at household waste recycling centres. The consultation and call for evidence closed on the 4th of July 2022. Alongside this, we commissioned research into the use of booking systems at household waste recycling centres to see if they have had an impact on fly-tipping levels. The government’s position on booking systems will be outlined shortly as part of the government response to the consultation on preventing charges for DIY waste at household waste recycling centres.

Faroe Islands: Whales

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to push for the abolition of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands.

Trudy Harrison: The UK is strongly opposed to the hunting of any cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), other than some limited activities by indigenous people for clearly defined purposes. We believe that the hunting of cetaceans is unacceptably cruel and that well-managed, responsible tourism is the only truly sustainable interaction with these animals. While we recognise there is a long tradition in the Faroe Islands of killing pilot whales and dolphins for meat and other products, we have long expressed our concern over the welfare and sustainability aspects of the Faroese cetacean hunts and the levels of domestic regulation currently in place. We have urged the Faroe Islands to look at alternatives to the hunting of cetaceans, encouraging them to consider the many economic and social benefits that responsible cetacean watching can bring to coastal communities. Most recently, during the Joint Committee on Trade with the Faroe Islands earlier this year, we raised the UK’s opposition to the continued hunting of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands on both animal welfare and conservation grounds. We also work through multilateral agreements to condemn these hunts. This includes leading the drafting of a letter from the ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North-East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas) Advisory Committee to the Faroese Government. In addition, at the recent IWC meeting in October 2022, the UK Commissioner made clear the UK’s ongoing concerns about small cetacean hunts in the Faroe Islands.The Government will continue advocating at every appropriate opportunity for the end of cetacean hunts in the Faroe Islands.

Meat: Imports

Mr Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of biosecurity checks on imported meat.

Mark Spencer: The Government published the Border Target Operating Model (TOM) ON 05 April 2023. In developing the TOM, we have designed a modern border with a simplified, effective, risk-based system of controls based on current assessments of risks to biosecurity. It will strike the appropriate balance between protecting the UK’s public health, food supply chains and natural environment, and setting a proportionate controls regime. The TOM will operate a more sophisticated approach to risk categorisation than the EU’s 3rd country model, with the intensity of controls calibrated to the level of risk presented by each commodity, and the country of origin. This will be underpinned independent and dynamic risk assessments which respond to changing risks. For high-risk and medium-risk goods, including POAO products in those categories, we will retain health certification and BCP inspection, albeit with frequently lower inspection rates than under the EU model.

Agriculture: Vacancies

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the impact of the availability of labour on crop production.

Mark Spencer: Defra continues to speak regularly with the sector and other government departments to understand labour supply and demand, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements, and to make sure that these requirements are understood across government. The Government recognises the importance of a reliable source of seasonal labour for crop production, and that it is a key part of bringing in the harvest for the horticultural sector. A key source of seasonal labour is the Seasonal Worker visa route, which allows a pre-defined number of overseas workers to come to the United Kingdom for up to six months to support horticulture growers during peak production periods, whilst maintaining robust immigration control. To reduce the risk of seasonal labour shortages, on 16 December 2022, the Government announced that an allocation of 45,000 visas will be made available in 2023. This is an uplift of 15,000 visas compared to the allocation at the start of 2022. A further 10,000 visas are potentially available for horticulture should there be demand and contingent on sponsors and growers continuing to improve worker welfare standards. The Seasonal Worker visa route will continue to operate until at least the end of 2024 and food and farming businesses can continue to draw on EU nationals living in the United Kingdom with settled or pre-settled status to meet their seasonal worker needs. To inform future decisions on labour across the sector, Defra has launched an independent review into labour shortages in the food supply chain. It will consider how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour can contribute to tackling labour shortages. The final report will be published by summer 2023 and the Government response will follow thereafter.

Flowers: Conservation

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help tackle the depletion of wildflowers.

Trudy Harrison: In England we have set four legally binding targets for biodiversity including to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030 then reverse declines by 2042 and restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat, such as wildflower meadows, also by 2042. We have set out our plan to deliver on these ambitious targets, along with our other environmental targets, in the revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) published 31 January 2023. Here we link the different objectives, plans and mechanisms for recovering nature. Our agri-environment schemes provide incentives for creation and management of wildlife-rich habitat. Since 2011, over 130,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat, including wildflower meadows, have been created. Our new Environmental Land Management schemes will reward farmers and land managers for delivering environmental outcomes such as conserving and restoring such habitats.Furthermore, our Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) provide protection for many species-rich grasslands. Additional sites are included in Natural England’s designation programme published on GOV.UK. The EIP23 confirms our commitment to delivering the 25 Year Environment Plan goal to restore 75% of our SSSIs to favourable condition by 2042. It also sets two interim targets on protected sites which support the delivery of that 2042 goal and contribute to the achievement of statutory species targets. We are supporting grassland creation and restoration, including through our Green Recovery Challenge Fund. For example, Plantlife’s ‘Meadow Makers’ project, which was awarded over £700,000 in the first round, has restored 500 hectares of species-rich grassland at over 100 sites across seven landscapes.

Food Supply

Richard Thomson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it is her Department’s policy to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding between food security agencies in her Department and respective UK devolved agencies and the European Food Security Crisis Preparedness and Response Mechanism (EFSCM) Expert Group.

Mark Spencer: It is not the Department’s policy to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding between food security agencies UK devolved agencies (DAs) and the European Food Security Crisis Preparedness and Response Mechanism (EFSCM) Expert Group. However, recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) was published in December 2021. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work. In terms of engagement on food security we engage widely and frequently with both public and private sectors through various fora. We engage with DAs through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and the EFRA Resilience priority meetings. Routine engagement with DAs also takes place through the Food Resilience Industry Forum (FRIF). Defra continues to engage with international partners in the G20 Agricultural Market Information System and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to facilitate smooth functioning of the global food trade. G7 Agricultural Ministers are committed to cooperating closely and taking concrete actions to safeguard global food security. Defra closely monitors markets and supplies through the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group and other industry engagement forums to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures. As a result of recent fruit and vegetable supply issues, Defra is considering how government and industry can work together to mitigate these in the short and longer term.

Barbecues: Sales

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning the sale of disposable barbecues.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to help prevent the sale of disposable barbecues in order to protect rural landscapes and wildlife.

Trudy Harrison: The public are encouraged to always behave responsibly when using products which have a fire risk. There are no plans to prohibit the sale of disposable barbeques or sky lanterns at this time, and there are existing powers available that limit the use in certain places. Current 'Byelaw' legislation allows for local authorities to restrict the use of disposable barbecues in parks and public spaces. These are steps that Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council among others have already taken. The Government encourages all local authorities to use these existing powers to take similar steps if they feel it necessary. There are also existing powers in legislation which can be used to regulate and prohibit the lighting of fires on access land in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks. The New Forest and Peak District National Park Authorities have already banned the use of disposable barbecues within their boundaries and have successfully collaborated with several retailers to remove disposable barbecues from a great many stores.

Food: Labelling

Virginia Crosbie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of food (a) labelling practices by supermarkets and (b) processing legislation.

Mark Spencer: The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, whether that be mandatory or voluntary, so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy All food sold on the UK market must comply with food labelling rules. The fundamental principle of food labelling rules is that information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must enable the safe use of food. Responsibility for assessing business compliance with the majority of food legislation rests with Local Authorities (LAs). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides a framework for LAs to regulate food businesses. A key aspect of this is the statutory Food Law Code of Practice (Code) and associated Practice Guidance, which establish a set of expectations for the activities LAs are responsible for under food law and how these are to be delivered. Food law provides a robust framework that protects public health and requires food businesses that produce, process, and distribute food to apply food safety controls that ensure food they place on the market is safe. The FSA completed a Post Implementation Review of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England ) Regulations 2013 in 2020.

Agriculture: Energy

Mr Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on extending the list of energy and trade intensive industries that are eligible for a higher level of energy support to include horticulture and poultry businesses.

Mark Spencer: Defra officials and Ministers have worked closely with counterparts across Government on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) support since the Government started to support business energy prices in Autumn 2022, raising the energy needs of businesses in our sectors via cross Government discussions on design of the scheme and formal Write Round processes.

Water: Standards

Sarah Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of local government on water quality.

Rebecca Pow: On drinking water quality there have been no recent discussions with local government. Local authorities are the regulators of private drinking water supplies and are responsible for identifying risks to the quality of drinking water with comprehensive monitoring programmes in place. In England, in 2021, private water supply compliance with the drinking water regulations was 96.9% which has been steadily improving (96.4% in 2020, 96.6% in 2019 and 95.2% in 2018). The Chief Inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate publishes an annual report that provides an overview of the quality of private water in supplies in England. https://www.dwi.gov.uk/what-we-do/annual-report/.

Agricultural Products: Exports

Mr Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help support agricultural exports.

Mark Spencer: We are delivering our commitment to boost UK exports. We want people at home and abroad to be lining up to buy British. We have expanded our agrifood attaché network from two to eleven locations around the world. They work to resolve market access barriers, reduce the complexity of trading requirements, and raise the profile of British products, enabling U.K. producers to tap into the growing international demand for our quality products. The attachés work to drive export growth and help deliver on the opportunities created by new Free Trade Agreements.

Department for Work and Pensions

Department for Work and Pensions: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2023 to Question 166164 on Government Departments: Staff, how many and what proportion of respondents to the most recent Leesman office survey undertaken by his Department (a) agreed and (b) disagreed with the statements about their main workplace that (i) it enables me to work productively, (ii) it supports me sharing ideas and knowledge amongst colleagues, (iii) it creates an enjoyable environment to work in, (iv) it contributes to a sense of community at work, and (v) it's a place I'm proud to bring visitors to.

Mims Davies: The Government Property Agency is committed to delivering great places to work and to ensure we are delivering on this commitment it is critical that civil servants have a voice that shapes their workplaces so that the spaces we deliver can best support them to be effective in delivering and serving the UK public. GPA has engaged with Leesman, a world leader in measuring workplace experience, using their independent, objective and transparent office surveys that allow us to benchmark ourselves globally. GPA is leading the way in analysing and gaining value from the Leesman data to ensure our workplace decisions and conversations are informed and led by insights and data. Leesman is a world leader in measuring workplace and employee experience via an online survey tool. The Leesman survey undertaken by GPA relates to an ALB of the Department, rather than DWP direct workforce – it is not therefore representative of the DWP workforce overall. The most recent Leesman office survey which was conducted for the ALB and the respondents that answered either agree or disagree to the questions listed is set out in the table below: The most recent Leesman office survey was conducted in 2021. The number of respondents that answered either agree or disagree to the questions listed is set out in the table below: QuestionNo. Respondent Agree (figures are aggregate by response of Strongly Agree, Agree or Slightly Agree)No. Respondent Disagree (figures are aggregate by response of Strongly Disagree, Disagree or Slightly Disagree)it enables me to work productively9 (40.91%)8 (36.36%)it supports me sharing ideas and knowledge amongst colleagues16 (72.73%)2 (9.09%)it creates an enjoyable environment to work in7 (31.82%)7 (31.82%)it contributes to a sense of community at work8 (36.36%)7 (31.82%)it's a place I'm proud to bring visitors to6 (27.27%)6 (27.27%)

Department for Work and Pensions: Older Workers

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of staff in his Department are over the age of 50.

Mims Davies: There are 40,674 staff over the age of 50, this represents 47.5% of the total workforce.

Department for Work and Pensions: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Mims Davies: As of 28th February 2023, 19.51% of current headcount declared that they were disabled.

Health and Safety: EU Law

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill on the level of support provided by the Government to businesses for health and safety initiatives.

Mims Davies: With the introduction of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remains focused on ensuring that regulatory frameworks maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of health and safety protection and continue to reduce burdens for business. HSE’s approach aligns closely with the Government’s pledge to do more for business to help promote growth by removing disproportionate burdens and simplifying the regulatory landscape whilst maintaining our existing high standards of health and safety.

Employment Schemes: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper, Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published 15 March 2023, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the introduction of a health conditionality approach on the number of disabled people required to (a) look for work and (b) undertake work preparation activity.

Tom Pursglove: Our new approach will provide more personalised levels of conditionality and employment support, with the aim of helping people to reach their potential and live a more independent life. This more tailored approach will allow work coaches to build a relationship with an individual and determine what, if any, work-related activities an individual can participate in.We will take time to carefully consider how best to implement these changes and take a test and learn approach with the new system before introducing it, to ensure it provides the taxpayer with value for money and is accessible and effective in delivering for our service users.We will continue to listen to, and work closely with, disabled people, people with health conditions and many other partners, on how to best deliver these reforms.

Social Security Benefits: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what recent estimate he has made of when the small-scale testing of the severe disability group will conclude; and how many people have been included in the test.

Tom Pursglove: Testing for the Severe Disability Group is still ongoing. This policy is being tested on a small scale across a range of health conditions. We will then gather insight from service users, DWP staff, and organisations to make sure it works as intended.

Disability: Children

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association’s Out Of Pocket campaign, if he will uplift the disabled child elements of Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit by £15 a month in addition to the CPI-linked uplift.

Tom Pursglove: There are no plans to further increase the disabled child elements of Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit beyond the annual uprating that occurred in April 2023.

Social Security Benefits: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what estimate he has made of when his Department's evaluation of how well telephone and video assessments are working compared to face-to-face assessments will be completed; and whether his Department has held discussions with disabled people as part of this evaluation.

Tom Pursglove: This work is currently underway and will complete later this year. As part of the wider evaluation the department has commissioned a large scale survey and is seeking a fuller understanding of claimant experience by assessment channel.

Universal Credit: Employment

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what additional work coach support is being offered to (a) people on Universal Credit and Employment Support Allowance awaiting their work capability assessment and (b) people who have been found to have limited capability for work or work-related activity but would like help to move into work as part of the initial trial across a third of Jobcentres.

Tom Pursglove: Additional Work Coach support provides increased one-to-one, personalised Work Coach support for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance to help them make progress towards and into work. In addition to direct Work Coach support, this will enable disabled people and people with health conditions to access wider skills support and our employment programmes earlier. Claimants awaiting their Work Capability Assessment, and claimants following their Work Capability Assessment found to have limited capability for work can receive support from their Work Coach equivalent to 30 minutes every fortnight. These appointments are tailored to the individual’s needs using the most appropriate channel for support including face to face, telephone, video conference, or digital appointments for Universal Credit customers. Claimants that have been found to have limited capability for work and work-related activity, who want support, will be able to access support from their Work Coach equivalent to 30 minutes every month.

Social Security Benefits: Learning Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department took to engage with people with learning disabilities in its consultation on the Health and Disability Green Paper.

Tom Pursglove: As well as receiving over 4,500 written responses to the Health and Disability Green Paper consultation, we held over 40 consultation events with disabled people, people with health conditions and their representatives. These included both virtual and face-to-face events, with events in Scotland, Wales and every region of England, to make sure we were hearing a variety of views, including from people with learning disabilities.Many charities and organisations helped us to run events by organising for their users to attend and speak to us about the areas of the Green Paper that were most important to them. We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have contributed through this and the consultation events. A list of the charities and organisations that took part in the consultation can be found in Annex A of Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper.

Employment: Autism and Learning Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, to which local authorities the Department has provided funding to deliver a model of supported employment to increase the employment prospects of autistic people and people with severe or specific learning disabilities.

Tom Pursglove: Autistic people and people with severe or specific learning disabilities are the least likely of all disabled people to be in work. We are providing £7.3m of grant funding to local authorities to deliver Local Supported Employment, supporting around 2,000 autistic and learning-disabled people to find and stay in work. Grant funding for LSE has been awarded to the following 23 lead local authorities in England and Wales:Barking and Dagenham London Borough CouncilBarnsley Metropolitan Borough CouncilBradford Metropolitan District CouncilCheshire West and Chester CouncilCity of Cardiff CouncilDurham County CouncilGloucestershire County CouncilHertfordshire County CouncilKent County CouncilKirklees Metropolitan Borough CouncilLancashire County CouncilLeicester City CouncilLincolnshire County CouncilNorfolk County CouncilOxfordshire County CouncilPembrokeshire County CouncilSalford City CouncilSandwell Metropolitan Borough CouncilSolihull Metropolitan Borough CouncilSouthampton City CouncilSurrey County CouncilThe Council of the City of WakefieldTower Hamlets London Borough Council In three areas, local authorities are working together by forming a cluster to provide this support, taking the total number of local authorities to 28. These are:Kent County Council are working with:o Medway CouncilBarnsley Metropolitan Borough Council are working with:o Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Councilo Sheffield City CouncilPembrokeshire County Council are working with:o Carmarthenshire County Councilo Ceredigion County Council

Employment Schemes: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper, Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published 15 March 2023, whether he plans to take steps to ensure that people in the no work-related requirements group are not required to look for work after the introduction of the new health conditionality approach.

Tom Pursglove: We recognise that for many disabled people and people with health conditions, work or work-related activity is not possible or appropriate. These changes do not mean that everyone will be required to conduct work and work-related activity. As part of the new approach to support, work coaches will have personalised conversations with claimants to determine their individual circumstances. This will mean that people will have their requirements tailored to their needs, which can include having no work-related requirements at all where appropriate.

Social Security Benefits

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2023 to Question 169369 on Social Security Benefits, for what reason people who are found not fit to work but not in receipt of the severe disability premium are subject to the benefit cap.

Guy Opperman: Many claimants who have a health condition choose to work. This is why the department continues to provide support to those claimants not exempt from the benefit cap to help prepare and move into or towards work.

Employment: Chronic Illnesses and Disability

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 27 of Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, what conditions the proposed specialist advisors will cover; and what will be included as part of the training in conditions.

Tom Pursglove: The White Paper sets out ambitious and extensive reforms to ensure that disabled people have the right support, opportunities and incentives to move into, and remain in, work.  We will transform the benefits system for the future, so that it focuses on what people can do rather than what they cannot, and ensure people can access the right support at the right time and have a better overall experience when applying for, and receiving, health and disability benefits. The Health Transformation Programme (HTP) will enable the delivery of White Paper proposals. We will continue to invest in developing our assessors’ skills. The Specialist Assessors is one of a number of proposed initiatives we will be exploring. This year, we will begin testing matching people’s primary health condition to a specialist assessor. As part of this, assessors will take part in training to specialise in the functional impacts of specific health conditions. HTP is transforming our health assessment service carefully and incrementally. We are exploring different options and testing as we go to ensure the new service meets the needs of claimants, including the need for specialist assessors. All our test and learn activity will be planned and prioritised to ensure we learn the right things at the right time, to deliver the best outcomes for claimants.

Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has provided recent guidance to medical clinicians on the use of SR1 forms for patients following changes to benefit applications under the new special rules for people with terminal illnesses.

Tom Pursglove: The DWP provides guidance to clinicians to support them to provide the SR1 medical evidence form to support their patient at the end of life to make a claim for benefits under the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). On 3rd April 2023, the DWP updated its clinical guidance on GOV.UK regarding the new SREL eligibility criteria and how to obtain and return an SR1 form. This guidance and a video explaining how to complete the SR1 form can be found at www.gov.uk/dwp/special-rules. The DWP has worked closely with clinical stakeholders like the Ambitions Partnership for Palliative and End of Life Care and the Royal Colleges; this engagement will continue to raise awareness of the changes to the SREL.

Universal Credit: Disability

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Universal Credit assessments for people with (a) autism and (b) other non-visible disabilities.

Tom Pursglove: The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) determines entitlement to the additional health-related amount of Universal Credit (UC), as well as Employment and Support Allowance. It assesses the impact of an individual’s health condition or disability, not the condition itself. The assessment criteria cover the full range of conditions: physical, mental, cognitive and/or behavioural.We are committed to supporting people, including those who have autism and other non-visible disabilities, through the assessment process. Healthcare professionals conducting the WCA receive training on autism, as well as other non-visible disabilities.In Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, we announced that we will legislate to remove the WCA and introduce a new UC health element linked to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), so that in future there is only one health and disability assessment – the PIP assessment. This will mean that there will be no need to be found to have limited capability for work and limited capability for work-related activity to get additional income-related support for a disability or health condition. Removing the WCA will reduce the number of assessments people need to take to access their benefits and enable us to provide more personalised levels of support in a new system. The degree of change in our proposals will require primary legislation which we will aim to take early in a new parliament, when parliamentary time allows. These reforms will then be rolled out to new claims only on a staged, geographical basis, from 2026/27. We expect the new claims roll out to be completed by 2029, when we will then move the existing caseload onto the new system.

Universal Credit: Children

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the money his Department has saved as a result of the two child cap on Universal Credit in each of the last three years; and what proportion of the total Department budget this represents.

Guy Opperman: The requested information is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Universal Credit

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households with annual incomes over £100,000 are receiving Universal Credit.

Guy Opperman: The requested information is not readily available, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Universal Credit

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of Universal Credit upper tariff income rules where a Lifetime ISA is the sole source of the claimant's capital.

Guy Opperman: No such assessment has been made.

Cost of Living Payments: Angus

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Angus constituency did not receive the first Cost of Living Payment due to receiving a nil award during the relevant Universal Credit assessment period.

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Angus constituency did not receive the second Cost of Living Payment due to receiving a nil award during the relevant Universal Credit assessment period.

Mims Davies: In line with the code of practice, the number of Cost of Living Payments made to recipients of a specific benefit is the subject of an upcoming statistical release, and cannot be released before that publication is ready, subject to usual quality assurance.

Social Security Benefits

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 169368, what guidance his Department offers to advice and assistance work coaches on claimants who are subject to the benefit cap but not expected to seek employment because their circumstances prevent them from working.

Guy Opperman: Universal Credit guidance is available for work coaches and also published in the House of Commons library. The department is committed to refreshing these at regular intervals.

Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper published on 15 March 2023, when his Department expects to complete its move to an IT system that will have the capability to record all assessments.

Tom Pursglove: During 2024, the department intends to move to a new telephony platform and make enhancements to the Video Assessment application, bringing the ability to record all assessments.

Jobcentres: Disability

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published 16 March 2023, what steps he plans to take to train and support (a) work coaches and (b) disability employment advisors to improve support for disabled jobseekers.

Tom Pursglove: Learning for Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisors already includes health and disability, we are currently working with Policy to impact and iterate learning journeys to align with Policy intent. DWP Work Coaches receive comprehensive learning to support customers with additional or complex needs, which continues at point of need throughout their role. The learning provides Work Coaches with the knowledge and skills to enable them to support claimants moving towards employment. Learning enables the Work Coach to determine what is required and to tailor the support and advice they offer. They complete scenario-based discussions and skills practice to cultivate effective communication skills, including the sensitive use of questions, to reach joint decisions. Within DWP, the Disability Employment Advisor (DEA) role is expected to have completed the Work Coach Learning Journey prior to commencing specific learning for the DEA role, which provides them with further skills to support specific needs, enabling claimants to progress towards employment and making opportunities more accessible.

Work and Health Programme: Learning Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper published on 15 March 2023, how many people have been referred to the Work and Health Programme due to a learning disability in each of the last three years for which data is available.

Tom Pursglove: Referrals to the Work and Health Programme (WHP) are recorded in one of three groups: disability, early access, or long term unemployed. Information relating to the nature of a participant’s disability is not captured. Therefore, the information requested is not held. WHP statistics are published quarterly, the latest set of official statistics includes data to November 2022, which can be found by selecting the link below:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/work-and-health-programme-statistics To be helpful, the table below shows the number of individuals referred to WHP who belong to the disability eligibility group over the three years prior to the end of November 2022. Time PeriodIndividuals Referred01 Dec 2019 – 30 Nov 202050,00901 Dec 2020 – 30 Nov 202182,30001 Dec 2021 – 30 Nov 202261,341Total193,650

Carer's Allowance

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the carer's allowance earnings threshold in line with inflation.

Tom Pursglove: Earlier this month the weekly Carer’s Allowance earnings limit increased from £132 to £139 net. This increase of 5.5% is in line with growth in Average Weekly Earnings for the year to May-July 2022, as published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).DWP uses the ONS Annual Average Weekly Earnings growth measure for benefit uprating purposes where appropriate, as it is regarded as the most robust and up to date estimate of earnings growth across the economy available at the time we review the earnings limit. Increases in the Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit are designed to try and ensure that it maintains its value. Therefore, the appropriate proxy for any increase is changes in wages (wage inflation), rather than a wider price inflation measure. Since 2010, the earnings limit will have increased by nearly 40%.

Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2023 to Question 148651 on the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, if he will list the stakeholders that his Department have consulted on those regulations.

Mims Davies: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. Officials from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders as part of their day-to-day business, covering many matters on both a formal and informal basis. HSE has good working knowledge to inform any decisions they need to make in relation to their approach with the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. If required, HSE has various established channels of communication with stakeholders to obtain supplementary information.

Children: Maintenance

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the system of payment enforcement used by the Child Maintenance Service.

Mims Davies: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to take rigorous action to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers. This approach is driven by the Payment Compliance strategy increasing CMS compliance influencing activities to tackle non-paying cases and challenge non-compliant behaviours. CMS applies a Continuous Improvement focus to Enforcement strategy and processes. Total child maintenance collected using Enforcement Actions amounted to £36.1 million in the quarter to December 2022 compared with £33.6 in December 2021 and £30.8 in December 2020. This rise in collections is linked directly to increased collections through Deductions from Earnings Orders, lump sum and regular deductions taken directly from paying parents’ bank accounts, Liability Order and Bailiff actions and making full use of all available sanctions. (Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 7.1 ‘Enforcement Actions’, April 2015 to December 2022). As a result of a focussed effort to increase enforcement activity £49.1 million was paid through the Collect & Pay service in the quarter ending December 2022 compared to £46.6. million in the quarter ending December 2021. (Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables – table 5 ‘Money Due and Paid each quarter’ January 2015 to December 2022). There has been a consistent downward trend in the proportion of unpaid maintenance as a proportion of maintenance arranged since 2017, falling from 12.5% in 2017 to 8% in December 2022. (Source – Child Maintenance Service published Statistics : National Tables - table 6 ‘ how much maintenance CMS has arranged March 2015 to December 2022).

Independent Case Examiner

Peter Grant: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Independent Case Examiner is taking steps to reduce the time between a complaint being accepted and the allocation of that complaint to an investigator.

Mims Davies: The ICE process has several stages. When a referral is received the team initially considers whether, without undertaking a detailed examination of the evidence, a resolution can be brokered with the relevant department or its supplier. If resolution cannot be achieved, and the complaint is accepted, the case awaits allocation to an investigator who, following a review of the evidence, will first consider if settlement is appropriate. This requires the relevant department or its supplier to agree action with the complainant. Full investigation reports of detailed findings and any recommendations for redress are based on a thorough examination of case evidence. The ICE office continues to review its internal processes and structures to make the most efficient use of its investigative resource. Between 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023, the office has recruited an additional 18 Investigators and is seeking to recruit up to its agreed headcount.

Child Maintenance Service: Staff

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff there were at the Child Maintenance Service in (a) 29 March 2018 and (b) 29 March 2023.

Mims Davies: The following number of staff were employed by Child Maintenance in each of the years requested: March 2018 – 5797.23 FTEFebruary 2023 – 3971.58 FTE The figures quoted are at month end and as March 23 figures are not yet available February 23 has been given. It is worth noting that in 2018 there were two Child Maintenance schemes in operation – Child Support Agency and Child Maintenance Scheme. The Child Support Agency scheme closed in 2020.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 146787 on Amey and VIVO Defence Services, what the total value was of payments his Department (a) withheld and (b) deducted from (i) Pinnacle, (ii) Amey and (iii) VIVO for failing to meet key performance indicators for quarter three.

Alex Chalk: A breakdown of the total value of payments the Department has withheld and deducted from Pinnacle, Amey and VIVO for failing to meet Key Performance Indicators cannot be provided currently as we remain in a period of contract rectification and this information is considered commercially sensitive; however, I am able to confirm that where sums have been withheld, this was directly related to the level of performance.

Military Bases: Asylum

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Oral Statement on Illegal Migration Update by the Minister for Immigration on 29 March 2023, Official Report, column 1018, when service accommodation that will be used to house asylum seekers was last occupied by service personnel in (a) Essex, (b) Lincolnshire, (c) East Sussex and (d) Catterick.

Alex Chalk: As announced by my right hon. Friend , the Minister for Immigration, the Home Office plan to utilise Wethersfield and Scampton to house asylum seekers through a combination of former barracks and modular accommodation. The provision of accommodation at these sites is a matter for the Home Office. Single Living Accommodation in Wethersfield was last used by Service personnel in 2022, and there remain a small number of Service families living in Service Families Accommodation, who are in the process of being relocated to new accommodation closer to their place of work. Service personnel were last accommodated on site at Scampton in 2021. The Home Office are working to bring forward proposals for accommodation in Catterick in due course. The MOD is not in discussion with Home Office regarding any Defence sites in East Sussex.

Gibraltar: Armed Forces

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ministry of Defence personnel are deployed in Gibraltar (a) permanently and (b) temporarily, broken down by unit.

James Heappey: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) employs 952 personnel in Gibraltar, of which 528 are locally employed civilians. The remainder are military and UK-based civil servants.The individual units of deployed MOD personnel are broken down as follows:· Royal Gibraltar Regiment - 235 personnel· Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron - 28 personnel· RAF Gibraltar - 16 personnel· HQ British Forces Gibraltar - 145 personnelGibraltar is routinely used by visiting Royal Navy ships, RAF aircraft and other units that temporarily deploy to conduct training. These visits total approximately 12,000 to 14,000 personnel per year. Exact numbers fluctuate, but indicative figures based on the number of visits in calendar year 2022 are as follows:· 79 ship visits per year (2022), which equates to around 6,000 to 7,000 Naval personnel.· 117 military aircraft per year (2022), with around 4,000 military passengers.· 2,000-3,000 personnel on training deployments per year, mostly from the Army.· HMS TRENT (63 Ship's Company) is also forward deployed from Gibraltar.

Gibraltar: Spain

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has a channel of communication with Spanish authorities on (a) military flights landing at RAF Gibraltar and (b) amphibious operations launched from Gibraltar.

James Heappey: The Ministry of Defence retains channels of communication with Spanish counterparts, at official and senior levels, on a range of issues. Where appropriate to do so, the UK Ministry of Defence shares some information relating to military operations with Spanish authorities; this is in line with our usual practices for cooperating with Allies.

Gibraltar: Navy

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many vessels the Navy intercepted from its Gibraltar base in 2022.

James Heappey: From 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022, the Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron responded to 780 Foreign Government Vessels in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters (BGTW). Of these incidences, 209 were classified as surface incursions into BGTW, while 571 were in accordance with the right of innocent passage.

Gibraltar: NATO

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether NATO has access to military installations in Gibraltar for its air and sea assets.

James Heappey: Whilst there are no permanent NATO facilities in Gibraltar, NATO Allies are always welcome to request use of the UK's military facilities in Gibraltar to support their operations.

RAF Gibraltar: Military Aircraft

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many foreign military aircraft landed at RAF Gibraltar in 2022, broken down by country.

James Heappey: From 1 January to 31 December 2022, nine non-UK military aircraft landed at RAF Gibraltar. These are broken down as follows:· United States of America - eight· Canada - one

Gibraltar: Armed Forces

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list all UK military units deployed in Gibraltar as of April 2023.

James Heappey: As of April 2023, the following UK units are deployed to Gibraltar:· HQ British Forces Gibraltar, including.· Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron· RAF Gibraltar· HMS TRENT· Additionally, the following units are locally raised in Gibraltar:o Royal Gibraltar Regimento Gibraltar Defence Police

Gibraltar: Armed Forces

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether there are any international military personnel deployed in Gibraltar as of April 2023.

James Heappey: There are four non-UK personnel deployed in Gibraltar as of April 2023.

Defence: Inflation

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the level of defence inflation between 2021 and 2023.

Alex Chalk: Defence inflation for 2021-22 has been estimated as 2.1%. The estimate for 2022-23 is due by the end of March 2024.

Defence Equipment & Support

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 76 of the Defence Equipment & Support Annual Report and Accounts 2021 to 2022, updated on 31 March 2023, what were the prescribed processes that were deviated from in the six identified instances relating to senior responsible owners' completion of training and objectives.

Alex Chalk: Model Senior Responsible Owners (mSROs) are responsible for ensuring the quality and suitability of Business-Critical Models used for analysis, investigation, and forecasting purposes within Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) against prescribed policy and requirements. As outlined in the DE&S Annual Report and Accounts 2021-2022, six projects were assessed as complying with these requirements but with minor deviations relating mainly to the mSRO.Five of these instances arose from the omission of the role and its responsibilities from annual objectives for mSROs and of these, four additionally related to failures to complete the relevant training during the year. One instance related to completion of relevant training and weaknesses in configuration control for documentation.All of these deviations have since been resolved.

Ministry of Defence: Procurement

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the senior responsible owners in his Department had (a) no formal project management qualifications and (b) not completed the Major Programmes Leadership Academy at the time of their appointment.

Alex Chalk: Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) of our Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) programmes are carefully selected and assessed for suitability prior to appointment. This includes consideration of prior experience as well as any formal qualifications held.Three current GMPP SROs were appointed based on experience alone but have since undertaken or are undertaking formal training.SROs of GMPP programmes are prioritised by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority for Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) places. It is therefore rare for candidates to undertake MPLA prior to taking up a first GMPP SRO appointment.Of our current GMPP SRO cohort, thirty required MPLA training on appointment and ten were MPLA graduates before being appointed.The Department does not routinely store historic information about the qualifications candidates had achieved on appointment to SRO roles outside of the Government Major Projects Portfolio.

Ministry of Defence: Pay

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average salary is of a senior responsible owner in his Department.

Alex Chalk: Senior Responsible Owners (SRO) are appointed at a range of civil service grades and military ranks. The Department's Government Major Projects Portfolio SROs are at civilian grades SCS1 and SCS2 and military ranks OF5, OF6 and OF7. The salary bands for these grades and ranks range from a minimum of £73,000 to a maximum of £162,500.Note there are some specialist military professions that attract a higher level of pay outside of the bands specified above.

Antiaircraft Missiles

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department (a) owns and (b) intends to procure RBS 70 NG short-range air defence systems.

Alex Chalk: The Ministry of Defence does not own RBS 70 NG short-range air defence systems, nor does it intend to procure them. RBS 70 is a Swedish-made laser beam riding missile system with capabilities very similar to the Thales (UK) Starstreak High Velocity Missile system that remains in service with the British Army and Royal Marines and is performing strongly in Ukraine.

Military Aircraft: Helicopters

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many H135 aircraft were owned by his Department as of 14 April 2023; how many hours have been flown by each of those aircraft; and what information is held on the remaining airframe fatigue hours for each aircraft.

Alex Chalk: Defence owns 34 H135's of which 29 are designated as Juno HT Mk1 for rotary wing training. The other five airframes are airworthy, but in storage awaiting a decision on whether they will remain in Defence. Registration - Flying HoursZM504 - 2,764hrs ZM505 - 2,461hrs ZM506 - 2,950 hrs ZM507 - 2,520 hrs ZM508 - 2,590 hrs ZM509 - 2,483 hrs ZM510 - 2,056 hrs ZM511 - 1,974 hrs ZM512 - 2,599 hrs ZM513 - 2,133 hrs ZM514 - 2,511 hrs ZM515 - 2,561 hrs ZM516 - 2,432 hrs ZM517 - 2,616 hrs ZM518 - 2,579 hrs ZM519 - 2,762 hrs ZM520 - 2,338 hrs ZM521 - 1,886 hrs ZM522 - 2,101 hrs ZM523 - 2,388 hrs ZM524 - 2,571 hrs ZM525 - 1,688 hrs ZM526 - 2,691 hrs ZM527 - 2,853 hrs ZM528 - 1,832 hrs ZM529 - 1,883 hrs ZM530 - 1,975 hrs ZM531 - 802 hrs ZM532 - 1,477 hrs G-CMIR - 20 hrs G-CMIS - 32 hrs G-CMIT - 12 hrs G-CMIU - 10 hrs G-CMIV - 13 hrs Airbus Helicopters technical information details that the H135 aircraft structural design is damage tolerant and does not specify a finite approved life.

Women and Equalities

Women: Northern Ireland

Claire Hanna: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on funding for women's groups in Northern Ireland who are coming to the end of funding programmes.

Maria Caulfield: The Government continues to hold regular meetings with the Devolved Administrations, including Northern Ireland, and offers its support to all of the constituent parts of the UK in their promotion of inclusion and belief that women should be able to thrive regardless of where they live in the UK.Equality is a fully transferred matter in Northern Ireland and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland is currently undertaking a programme of work aimed at refreshing the policy frameworks for voluntary and community sector support. This includes agreeing with partners on the outcomes that should be prioritised in future years, together with a series of roundtables to discuss key questions of interest.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Billing

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of invoices received by her Department  were paid within five days in (a) the 2021-2022 financial year and (b) each of the last 12 months.

Michael Tomlinson: The table below shows the percentage of invoices received and paid within five days for (a) 2021-22 and (b) each of the last 12 months.  MonthYear 2021/22 18.06%Apr-227.95% May-225.26% Jun-2233.33% Jul-2225.00% Aug-2225.71% Sep-2233.33% Oct-224.76% Nov-2236.36% Dec-2244.44% Jan-2328.57% Feb-230.00% Mar-2318.52%

Crown Prosecution Service: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March to Question 163750 on Crown Prosecution Service: Staff, what proportion of the difference between the figure provided in that answer for the number of prosecutors employed in the Crown Prosecution Service regions as of 31 December 2019 (2,009) and the figure provided in the answer of 20 December 2021 to Question 90844 for the total number of prosecutors employed by the CPS on the same date (2,800) is accounted for by the inclusion in the latter figure of prosecutors employed in the CPS Direct and CPS Central Casework divisions.

Michael Tomlinson: The total of 2,800 in the answer to question 90844 includes 414 prosecutors (including managers) employed in CPS Direct and CPS Central Casework Divisions.

Crown Prosecution Service: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March to Question 163750 on Crown Prosecution Service: Staff, what proportion of the difference between the figure provided in that answer (2,182) for the number of prosecutors employed in the Crown Prosecution Service regions as of 31 December 2020  and the figure provided in the answer of 20 December 2021 to Question 90844 on Crown Prosecution Service: Staff for the total number of prosecutors employed by the CPS on the same date (3,025) is accounted for by the inclusion in the latter figure of prosecutors employed in the CPS Direct and CPS Central Casework divisions.

Michael Tomlinson: The total 3,025 in answer to question 90844 includes 436 prosecutors (including managers) employed in CPS Direct and CPS Central Casework Divisions

Crown Prosecution Service: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 163750 on Crown Prosecution Service: South West, what proportion of the difference between the figure provided in that Answer for the number of prosecutors employed in the Crown Prosecution Service regions as of 31 December 2021 (2,230) and the figure provided in the Answer of 20 December 2021 to Question 90844 for the total number of prosecutors employed by the CPS on the same date (3,118) is accounted for by the inclusion in the latter figure of prosecutors employed in the CPS Direct and CPS Central Casework divisions.

Michael Tomlinson: The total of 3,118 in the answer to question 90844 includes 438 prosecutors (including managers) employed in CPS Direct and CPS Central Casework Divisions. The figures were not from the same date. As stated in answer to question 90844, the data was correct as of 30 November 2021. As stated in answer to question 16370, the data was correct as of 31 December 2021.

Crown Prosecution Service: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 163750 on Crown Prosecution Service: South West, what accounts for the difference between the figure provided in that answer for the total number of prosecutors employed by the Crown Prosecution Service as of 31 December 2022 (2,703) and the equivalent figure provided in the Answer of 13 February 2023 to Question 139145 (2,389).

Michael Tomlinson: They are not equivalent figures. As stated in answer to Question 163750, the grand total was 2,703. Whereas the table in answer to Question 139145 gave a breakdown and not a grand total. In addition to the 2,389 prosecutors in that table are Crown Advocates; Associate Prosecutors; and qualified and experienced prosecutors in corporate roles such as legal trainers. Further, as stated in answer to Question 163750, consequential changes to data input may mean that the data will change at some point in the future.

Wales Office

Question

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what comparative assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of energy costs in (a) Wales and (b) the rest of the UK.

David T C Davies: The most recent data demonstrates that households in Wales pay a price broadly on par with the average across Great Britain. This Government has announced unprecedented support to protect households and businesses from high energy prices, including the recent extension of the Energy Price Guarantee. Our support has covered almost half of the typical household energy bill.

Babies: Wales

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Health and (b) the Welsh Government on sharing best practice on giving every baby the best start in life.

David T C Davies: I thank the Rt Honourable Lady for her tireless efforts on this matter. Health is devolved in Wales, however, the UK Government published its ‘Best Start for Life’ Vision in March 2021, which includes the intention to share best practice with the Welsh Government. Officials in the Department of Health and Social Care will continue to share best practice with Welsh Government officials to ensure every baby gets the best start in life.

Childcare: Wales

Sarah Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on childcare provision in Wales.

David T C Davies: As announced at budget, working parents in England will be entitled to 30 hours of free childcare a week from once their child is 9 months old, backed by over £4 billion.Childcare provision in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Government.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

District Heating

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department is taking steps to increase private investment into the heat networks industry from sources outside of existing Government schemes.

Graham Stuart: As acknowledged in the recent Green Finance Strategy, heat networks will require significant private sector finance to help deliver decarbonised heating. The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero is engaging with both the public and private sectors to encourage private investment into the market. This includes policies such as heat network zoning and market regulation to improve the investment environment for heat network investors, publicising the pipeline of heat network projects which currently stands at £2.2 billion, and working with the UK Investment Bank to encourage private sector funding into the development of local authority led heat networks.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what money has been allocated to the (a) Acorn, (b) Hynet and (c) East Coast carbon capture scheme cluster.

Graham Stuart: The Government is supporting industrial clusters to develop their Front End and Engineering Design (FEED) studies, for the deployment of CCUS and other decarbonisation infrastructure, through the provision of £171 million of funding via the UKRI-led Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC). This includes:HyNet: c. £32.8m;Acorn: c. £31.3m;ECC: c. £86.2m.

Wind Power

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of public opinion on (a) installation and (b) capacity of onshore wind.

Graham Stuart: The Department conducts regular public opinion research into a range of energy technologies, including onshore wind. The full results of these studies are published on our website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-attitudes-tracking-survey.

Housing: Wales

Virginia Crosbie: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the report by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales entitled Homes fit for the future: the retrofit challenge, published in July 2021, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of that report's recommendation that the UK Government should provide £3.6 billion of funding over 10 years to help decarbonise and improve the quality of Welsh homes.

Graham Stuart: The promotion of energy efficiency is devolved to Wales. The Welsh Government provides funding for home energy efficiency improvements. The UK Government works with the Welsh Government in respect of regulatory measures providing funding for energy efficiency, including the Energy Company Obligation which covers Wales, and the forthcoming £1 billion Great British Insulation Scheme, which could save around 300,000 of the least energy efficient homes £300-£400 each year. The UK Government recently announced the extension of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme until 2028, to support the installation of heat pumps in domestic and small non-domestic buildings in England and Wales.

Alternative Fuel Payments

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, for what reason Alternative Fuel Payments are not made to building society accounts.

Amanda Solloway: The system for bank account payments in the UK is more standardised than for building society payments. Therefore, to reduce the burden on local authorities, the Government has taken the decision to only allow bank account payments for the Alternative Fuel Payment. Basic bank accounts are free to open, and do not have the same credit check requirements as a standard current account. Applicants can open a basic bank account in branch, or sometimes online or over the phone, depending on the bank.

Alternative Fuel Payments: Appeals

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether an appeal process is in place for people whose applications for the Alternative Fuel Payment are refused.

Amanda Solloway: Applicants should contact the contact centre helpline on 0808 175 3943 if the appeal relates to their initial application. If the appeal relates to evidence provided as part of the application, applicants should contact their Local Authority. Appeals may be escalated to the Department in some circumstances where further checks are required.

Bulb Energy: Insolvency

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate he has made of the cost to energy customers of (a) Bulb Energy Ltd being placed in special administration and (b) the takeover by Octopus Energy.

Amanda Solloway: As per the recent NAO report, the latest estimate is that there will be an overall net cost of £240m: https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/investigation-into-bulb-energy/.This estimate will be updated in due course once wholesale energy costs are fully reconciled.

Members: Correspondence

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when his Department plans to respond to the letter of 7 March 2023 from the hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun on nuclear power.

Andrew Bowie: I wrote to the hon. Member on 17 April about nuclear power.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much funding his Department has allocated to the Track 2 Carbon Capture Usage and Storage clusters.

Graham Stuart: The Government launched Track-2 of the CCUS Cluster Sequencing Process in March to identify two additional clusters, contributing to the Government's ambition to capture 20-30 million tonnes CO2 per year across the economy by 2030. The Government has supported industrial clusters (including potential Track 2 clusters) since 2019 to develop their Front End and Engineering Design (FEED) studies for the deployment of CCUS and other decarbonisation infrastructure, by providing £171 million of funding via the UKRI-led Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC). On 15 March 2023, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an unprecedented £20 billion investment in the early development of CCUS to help meet the Government’s climate commitments. This funding is not currently allocated to specific projects or tracks.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much funding his Department has allocated to the succesful Track-1 carbon capture, usage and storage projects.

Graham Stuart: My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £20bn of funding to store as much carbon and create as many jobs as possible through Track-1 and beyond. Track 1 Projects have only been shortlisted at this point and are not guaranteed funding until negotiations are complete.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

English National Opera

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps to ensure no jobs are lost at the English National Opera following changes to the funding it receives from Arts Council England.

Julia Lopez: Arts Council England (ACE) has set a provisional budget of up to £24 million investment to support the English National Opera (ENO), subject to successful application, for 2024-2026. This is in addition to the £11.46 million of funding already awarded to the ENO for April 2023 to March 2024 while it develops its future plans.ENO received £12.3 million per year in the 2018-22 National Portfolio Investment Programme. Even though it will not be part of the new 2023-26 Investment Programme, ACE has set a provisional budget of up to £12 million per year for 2024/25 and 2025/26 to support the ENO make a phased transition to a new artistic and business model.The Department is pleased that the Arts Council England and English National Opera are working together on possibilities for the future of the organisation.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Mobile Phones: Fees and Charges

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will take steps to restrict the extent to which phone companies may increase tariffs in the context of the increased cost of living.

Julia Lopez: The Government recognises that this is a difficult time for families across the country who are struggling to pay their bills as a result of the global rise in the cost of living.The sector remains highly competitive and UK consumers can currently access some of the lowest mobile pricing in Western Europe. However, it is important that contracts are transparent and consumers understand what they are signing when taking out a new communications service. Ofcom recently announced it has begun a programme of work to consider whether contracts are sufficiently transparent. I look forward to their findings.In June 2022, leaders from broadband and mobile operators agreed on a set of industry commitments to help people through the global rise in the cost of living. These include manageable payment plans and allowing households, who may be mid-contract but struggling with their bills, to switch to cheaper packages without penalty.